The French government has banned internal flights to places where there is no rail alternative and hopes that other European countries will follow suit.
The measure, against climate change, is aimed at internal trips of less than two and a half hours by train, announced the Minister of Transport.
“I hope other European countries follow this measure,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune said in an interview with France Info today.
The minister, who stressed that France is “the only country in Europe” to apply this measure, did not rule out the possibility that the two and a half hours could become three hours.
In this sense, Beaune specified that the construction of a high-speed line between Bordeaux and Toulouse is planned, which will allow the entire Paris-Toulouse corridor to be covered at high speed.
The ban on internal flights with a rail alternative of less than two and a half hours was authorized by the European Commission.
Taking into account the numerous exceptions, in practice this measure only meant the abolition of three connections, between the Parisian airport of Orly and the cities of Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes, which Air France (the company that made these connections) had already stopped . operating in early 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Air France promised not to resume these calls on the condition that it receive state aid to overcome the crisis caused by covid-19.
The ban does not prevent connections between Lyon and Bordeaux with the Parisian Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport because they are connecting flights with others in the Air France international network.
Source: TSF
