Short flights in France abolished if there is a train (up to a journey of 2 and a half hours) – Corriere.it

In France enters into force stop to short internal flights if on the same route there is avalid train alternative (for max two and a half hours).

After months of discussions and following the green light from the European Commission – with some limitations – the new de facto measure only concerns i connections between Paris-Orly with Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux.

Nor does it apply to connecting flights, even between these locations, i.e. necessary to embark on an intercontinental connection.

Emmanuel Macron, president of France, celebrated on social media: Commitment maintained, he wrote.

Ban les lignes ariennes en cas d?alternative de moins de 2h30 en train.

Je m?y suis engag.

Nous sommes les premiers le faire. pic.twitter.com/hDYpz5Osms

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 23, 2023

The routes

Insiders point out thereduced impact of the banalso given the different exemptions.

Moreover, flights between Paris and Marseilles (where the train takes about three hours) are saved, as are the routes between Paris and Lyons, Paris-Rennes, Lyons-Marseilles, the latter because the rail connections to the airports do not allow travelers to arrive early in the morning or late in the evening.

The NGO Transport & Environment estimates that the ban on short flights in France is purely symbolic. European governments continue to ignore the main source of aviation emissions, which is long-haul flights.

The conditions

The novelty has detailed conditions that reduce its impact.

The train journey must serve, without changes, the same cities as the airports involved. In the case of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, it should be considered the high-speed station that serves the terminals. Not only.

The frequencies must be sufficient and the times suitable – reads the decree – taking into account the transport needs of passengers using this connection, in particular in terms of connectivity and intermodality, as well as the traffic transfers that would be caused by the ban.

Furthermore, the connection must allow more than eight hours of presence on site during the day, all year round.

Brussels opinion

On December 2, 2022 Brussels had given the go-ahead to France’s planbut had reduced to three – from the eight envisaged by the transalpine parliament in 2021 – the routes to be canceled within the country.

The European Commission then said the country could add three more routes — between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Lyon and Rennes, and between Lyon and Marseille — but only if rail services improve and allow travelers to arrive early in the morning or late in the evening.

Two other proposed routes (from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Bordeaux and Nantes) were rejected because the journey time on board a train exceeds the limit of two and a half hours.

The impact in Italy

According to the analysis that the Courier performed over a year ago in Italy there would be only three routes affected by a possible French-style measure: Between Rome Fiumicino and Florence, Bologna, Naples.

The stop to short flights – which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions – does not convince the airlines. Willie Walsh, director general of Iata (international carriers association) has long explained that even by removing all flights of less than 500 kilometers in Europe to replace them with rail connections, we would eliminate 24% of flights on the continent, but the sector’s CO2 emissions aircraft would decrease by only 3.84%.