France moved one step closer this weekend to banning short-haul flights in favour of train services, as it attempts to cut the country’s carbon emissions.
MPs voted on Saturday evening to suspend some flights by domestic airlines that can be made by train in less than two-and-a-half hours.
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The bill must pass through France’s upper house, the Senate, for it to take effect.
“This policy really has the potential to accelerate all sustainable aviation options,” said Venkat Viswanathan, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
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“Among them it could really push electric aviation forward.”
Environmental campaigners are disappointed with President Emmanuel Macron for watering down proposals from his own environmental panel, which had recommended a ban on flights where a train journey would take less than four hours.
That hasn’t stopped French carriers from criticising the bill arguing that this is not the time to introduce such a ban after a torrid couple of years for the aviation industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A number of European countries have sought to promote train travel as an alternative to domestic flights.
Last year, Austria Airlines replaced one of its flights with a more frequent train service in order to meet the environmental criteria of its recent government bailout.
