Is this the end of affordable, short flights around Europe?
Aviation industry leaders have condemned the new law that was greenlit by the European Commission earlier in the month.
France has announced it will eliminate short-haul flights after a law was greenlit by the European Commission earlier this month for routes with rail alternatives available under than two and a half hours.
France is the first country in the European Union to ban its shortest regional domestic flights, a decision which came in response to one of the recommendations proposed during France’s Citizens Convention on Climate, affecting about 12 per cent of the country’s domestic flight routes including those between Paris’s Orly Airport and the towns of Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon.
However the latest move under France’s environmental policy has been deemed “utter nonsense” by aviation industry leaders.
During a press conference, Willie Walsh, head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said research has found banning every short-haul flight of 500km or less would only account for a 3.8 per cent decline in carbon emissions, despite proposed air traffic control measures showing a significantly larger reduction.
“You see these politicians saying ‘this is the solution, we’re going to ban short haul flying’. [It is] complete and utter nonsense, especially when you consider that if you reform air traffic control in Europe you would reduce Co2 by 10 percent,” Mr Walsh said.
“We need to have this debate firmly anchored in data and the data demonstrates that the greatest contribution politicians could make to this issue is to reform air traffic control in Europe.”
Mr Walsh said implementing a single “European sky” could achieve the 10 per cent reduction “overnight” and would remove debate surrounding rail infrastructure, which in many countries doesn’t exist.
“We need to be sure that the measures that are being taken actually lead to the objective of an improvement of the environmental performance,” he said.
The commission, which was implemented by President Emmanuel Macron, initially recommended the cessation of flights for routes which could be completed in under four hours, but this was met with opposition from Air France/KLM on grounds of lost revenue during Covid.
The national airline had already agreed to reduce its domestic routes as part of a €7 billion bailout by the French government, but these new rules which were implemented in April now apply to all international carriers.
Austria, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have also enforced rules regarding short-haul flights; with a 2020 European Investment Bank survey of 28,088 European citizens finding that 62 per cent supported a ban on these routes.
The findings reflect a general mood among younger Europeans, many of whom are pushing for more action on climate change. In Sweden, a backlash in 2018 against unnecessary air travel sparked a movement called flygskam, meaning ‘flight shame’, which led to a four per cent drop in the number of international flights that year.
In 2020 Austria’s government placed restrictions on its national carrier Austrian Airlines, agreeing to a €600 million bailout on the proviso the company ceased routes which could be completed by rail in less than three hours. A €30 levy is now in place for passengers flying routes less than 350km, as well as a €40 minimum price for tickets for all flights entering the country.