France brings in watered-down ban on short-haul domestic flights

France has officially introduced a ban on domestic flights for journeys that can be made by train in less than 2.5 hours, a much-hyped measure aimed at cutting carbon emissions from the aviation industry. But the fine print means that only a handful of routes will be affected.

Aircraft on the tarmac at Orly Airport in France, on 24 June 2020. © REUTERS - CHARLES PLATIAU

The ban came into effect on Tuesday under a new government decree that lays out the conditions.

It specifies that for a flight to be scrapped, trains serving the same route must be direct, frequent and offer "satisfactory service".

They should allow travellers to go and come back on the same day, after at least eight hours at their destination. 

And they must be available year round, at an "affordable" cost – though no price limits are defined.

"They all add up to a lot of constraints that mean that probably airlines will have the grounds to contest any ban that the transport ministry might order," says Stéphen Kerckhove, head of the climate association Agir pour l'Environnement (Act for the Environment). 

He told RFI that his group is also concerned about the fact that the decree is only valid for three years, given the risk of airlines mounting lengthy legal challenges. 

Only three routes affected

The aviation industry has already gone to EU authorities over the ban, which was first proposed as part of France's citizen climate convention from 2019 to 2020 and then included in a 2021 climate law.

Some airlines asked the European Commission to investigate whether it was legal. After studying it, the commission signed off on the measure last December, but set a three-year expiry date.

The legislation had already been watered down from the original proposal, which foresaw a ban on flights that could be swapped for a train journey of up to four hours.

As it stood, the 2.5-hour ban stood to affect eight domestic flight routes. Now the conditions attached mean that only three qualify for cancellation: between Paris Orly airport and Bordeaux, Nantes or Lyon.

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But travellers will still be able to fly between Paris's larger Charles de Gaulle airport and any of these cities, since the equivalent rail connections either don't meet the time limit or wouldn't get passengers to their destination early enough in the morning or late enough at night. 

The same logic means that airlines can continue operating flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rennes, as well as between Lyon and Marseille.

Some of these routes might be banned in future, according to the French government, if train services improve.

But France's busiest domestic routes, Paris-Toulouse and Paris-Nice – each flown by more than a million people in 2019 – are not in any danger: the equivalent train journeys take around 4.5 and 5.5 hours respectively.

Private jets fly freely

"If that’s all it comes down to, it’s really not very much – it will ban a few dozens or hundreds of flights, nothing like the scale we need to actually fight climate change," comments Kerckhove.

He would like to see the original four-hour time limit reinstated, as well as other measures to reduce carbon emissions from France's transport sector.

"There are loads of actions to take – including the reduction of speed limits on roads and motorways," he suggests.

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Others have called for restrictions on private jets in France, which aren't subject to the new ban. 

France has some of the most private flights of any country in Europe.

While the government recently rejected calls to ban them outright, the transport ministry said that it would hike the fuel tax for private aircraft by 70 percent from 2024.