France’s short-haul flight ban approved by European Commission

Aviation associations and environmental lobby groups have voiced criticism over France's new short-haul flight policy. Photo / Unsplash

France’s plan to ban short-haul domestic flights has been approved by the European Commission, earning criticism from both the aviation sector and environmental groups.

Earlier this week, the European Commission signed off on Emmanuel Macron’s environmental policy, which will outlaw flights between destinations where a rail connection already exists and takes less than two-and-a-half hours.

Macron’s policy banning short-haul domestic flights is expected to come into play next year.

While the initial proposal would have affected eight routes in France, the commission only supported the ban for routes where a genuine rail alternative was available. This means only three routes will be impacted, for journeys between Paris-Orly and Bordeau, Nantes and Lyon.

Paris train route times

If rail services improve between other routes, then more flights could be impacted.

The EU executive said the policy was justifiable as long as it is “non-discriminatory, does not distort competition between air carriers, is not more restrictive than necessary to relieve the problem.”

Aviation association condemns the ban

However, a global airline association claims the policy is not only more restrictive than necessary but “complete and utter nonsense”.

The director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Willie Walsh said the policy may sound effective but is an inefficient solution.

“The measures that have been discussed sound good, but will they really make a difference to the carbon footprint?” Walsh said.

“In the case of banning short haul flights, [it is] not going to have the happy impact that some politicians would lead you to believe.”

According to Walsh, research showed that banning flights of 500km or less will reduce service levels by almost 25 per cent but only cut carbon emissions by 3.8 per cent.

“You see these politicians saying this is the solution: we’re going to ban short haul flights. [It is] complete and utter nonsense,” he said.

The boss of Dutch carrier KLM has encouraged customers to make the switch for short domestic trips but Walsh, a former boss of British Airways, proposed other ways of reducing the aviation sector’s carbon footprint.

Instead of cutting short-haul flights, the focus should be on making these flights more carbon efficient by reforming air traffic control, said Walsh.

Currently, Europe’s skies are a tangle of different state-owned air traffic control operators, which make it challenging to reroute flights for optimum efficiency.

Instead of worrying about rail infrastructure and train travel, Walsh said the issue of emissions could be solved “overnight” by implementing what has been termed ‘the single European Sky’.

“If you reform air traffic control in Europe, you would cut CO2 by 10 per cent. And that can be done overnight,” he said.

‘Tip of the iceberg’ says environmental group

Meanwhile, environmental groups and the railway industry believe the government’s action needs to be more extreme.

European campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) believe the ban is too small a step, and tougher action needs to be taken on long-haul flights.

“The only thing that we say is that [banning short-haul flights] is only addressing the tip of the iceberg of aviation’s climate problem, because the biggest chunk of emissions is linked to long-haul flights,” said T&E aviation manager Jo Dardenne

“Governments shouldn’t forget that we need to pursue every policy to reduce emissions, but you have to focus also on where the biggest chunk of emissions lie, which is long-haul.”

ALLRAIL, a European lobby group, is pushing for a ban on any flight that could be served by a night train and more support towards cross-border railway journeys.

“France has made the right first step,” said ALLRAIL president Dr Erich Foster. “Now it’s time for European stakeholders to grasp the opportunity and become more ambitious”.