The price of the ticket, possibly increased by new taxes, will be one of the variables making it possible to promote the least polluting means of transport and to finance the decarbonization of the sector, estimated Tuesday the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune.
If we want to do both a bit of modal transfer (towards less polluting modes of transport, mainly the train, editor’s note) and above all investment in the ecological transition, (…) it mainly goes through the price. The price is partly the tax, said Mr. Beaune at the Medef summer school in Paris.
I want to do it proportionately, reasonably, etc., he said.
More generally, the regulation of transport – such as the prohibition of short flights on journeys also provided by train – must, according to him, be relevant and on the right scale.
The user must pay part of the costs, he also judged. It is virtuous and it is empowering, he said.
The minister confirmed that the next finance bill would include taxes on motorway companies and airline tickets.
It is not to punish one mode of transport and finance another, he nuanced.
The heart of the battle will be technical progress, innovation and investment, public and private, to decarbonize the most polluting modes of transport, he underlined, recognizing that travel by road and by plane still had a bright future ahead of them.
I do not believe at all that the plane will disappear, I do not believe at all that the State should withdraw from the financing of the aeronautical sector (…) it is necessary to finance transport in general, noted Mr Beaune.
The tax increase will also finance the 300 million euros per year that the State puts into the aeronautical sector to finance sustainable fuels (and) the green plane of tomorrow, he argued.
Of course, prices will have to increase, admitted the CEO of Groupe ADP, Augustin de Romanet, present at the same debate.
But air transport is like maritime transport, it is also an activity that creates jobs, he pleaded.
Let’s not forget that tourism is 10% of GDP in France, and if we don’t have planes, we don’t have tourists, he said.