French Transport Minister Clément Beaune wants an end to super-cheap flights in Europe as they incentivise Europeans to take planes rather than trains, and thus swim against the tide of environmental action being taken to help the EU cut carbon emissions.
The idea has been floated of a minimum price for air tickets in Europe to curb these cut-price deals, which have been described as “social and environmental dumping”, the Minister has told French publication L’Obs.
The minister said he would take responsibility for ensuring that tax from “polluting activities” was invested in making transport greener, and that he planned to submit his minimum price proposal to EU colleagues shortly.
Meanwhile, the French government has already said it will increase the so-called ‘solidarity’ tax, which applies to all flights from France and is used to invest in the railway network.
Additional taxes on flight tickets and motorists are set to feature in France’s budget for 2024.
Beaune was speaking of heavily discounted tickets, such as those starting from €10 (R203), and pointed out that they should no longer be available when the world was trying to fight climate change and global warming.
He made reference to certain low-cost airlines selling tickets that do not even cover the real cost of a flight, at a time when air travel was known to emit significantly more greenhouse gases per passenger than trains.
One-way international flights from France can commonly be found for as little as €10 (R203) or €20 (R406).
Bruno Gazeau, President of France’s transport users’ association, the Fédération Nationale des Associations d'Usagers des Transports (FNAUT), commented on the Minister’s speech on news website franceInfo saying that the transport economic models must be made coherent.
“If we want a policy which considers climate change, it is imperative that the various grants and tax-relief systems given do not make planes systematically cheaper than the train,” he said.
Gazeau said if the French government planned to increase the use of night trains in Europe, they must be “given a chance” and flying must not be given an advantage with “very low prices”.
France aims to introduce at least 12 overnight rail routes across the country by 2030, but FNAUT said progress had been slow. Gazeau said: “We cannot have low-cost plane tickets costing less than a train ticket, otherwise the policy is incomprehensible.”
