The decree banning domestic flights between destinations connected by a train journey of less than two and a half hours came into force on Tuesday in France. The rule will mean the elimination of air routes between Paris and cities such as Nantes, Bordeaux or Lyon, since, as the Ministry of Transport advances in a statement, "the rail service allows the journey to be made in less than two and a half hours". Certain sectors of French climate activism have criticized that the ban is not enough, and that it should go further.
The Minister of Transport, Clement Beaune, said on his Twitter account that the publication of the standard is "a great signal and a world first": "Achieving carbon neutrality means intensively strengthening our action on the decarbonization of transport, which represents 30% of emissions," Beaune said in the statement. "While we fight tirelessly to decarbonize our way of life, how to justify the use of the plane between large cities that enjoy regular, fast and efficient train connections?"
🌳 Ce matin, l'interdiction des lignes aériennes en cas d'alternative de moins de 2h30 en train devient réalité.
C'est un signal majeur et une 1ère mondiale ! On continue ! pic.twitter.com/rizee5snPJ
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) May 23, 2023
According to the third European Aviation Environmental Report, which is produced every three years, COâ‚‚ emissions from aircraft taking off from European space increased by 2005% between 2019 and 34 to 147 million tonnes. The report, from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and presented last September at the European Commission, predicts that the trend, if no action is taken, could continue to rise to reach 188 million tons in 2050. That is, 28% more than in 2019.
The French National Assembly took the first steps to approve the text in April 2021, in full decline in air traffic due to the covid pandemic. The measure has its origin in the work carried out by the Citizens' Convention for the Climate, the assembly organized by the Executive of Emmanuel Macron in 2021 with citizens chosen by lot to address climate policies. The initial proposal sought to ban domestic flights between destinations that were connected by train journeys of less than four hours.
When the decree reached the Assembly, the French airline industry criticized the measure, arguing that, in full recovery from the pandemic, it was not the most propitious time to ban most domestic flights. This measure coincided, paradoxically, with the injection of 4,000 million made by the French State in the airline Air France – which made it its first shareholder – the largest operator of domestic flights in France.
A year after the start of the legislative process, the issue of domestic flights in France returned to the media spotlight when, in September last year, Paris Saint Germain star Kylian Mbappé laughed out loud after a journalist asked him if he was considering taking a train instead of the plane to travel to nearby matches.