A French government decree has officially banned domestic flights where the destination can be reached in two and a half hours by train.
As reported in thelocal.com, the decree came after some airlines asked the European Commission to investigate the legality of the decision under EU law. In reality, the ban has been applied to flights since 2021, but the decree gives it the stamp of finality.
Flights between Paris and regional hubs such as Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux are now off the board, excepting for those flights with a high share of connecting passengers.
The original proposal hoped to ban flights where the journey could be done within six hours by rail.
The decree specifies that the train services replacing flights on the routes in question must be frequent, timely and well-connected enough to meet the needs of would-be air passengers. Passengers must be able to get a same-day return ticket on these routes. The train services must also be able to cope with an increase in numbers.
The government secured Air France’s co-operation with the plan in exchange for a 2020 COVID financial support package.
Soccer team Paris-Saint-Germain were last year “flight-shamed” for taking a flight to a match in Nantes, when they could have done the same journey by train in two hours.
Now, some politicians in France are calling for an outright ban on small private jets, or the possibility of a higher climate charge being levied on users of private jets.
