The ban on short domestic flights in France, a measure emptied of its substance
“A major signal”, “a strong symbol”, “a world first”. The Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune, did not lack superlatives to congratulate himself, Tuesday, May 23, of the entry into force of the ban on short airlines within France. But behind the communication, the measure will, in reality, have limited consequences in terms of the fight against global warming. Far from the initial ambitions.
One domestic flight in France out of forty concerned
The idea of eliminating air travel when it can easily be replaced by another mode of transport has gained ground in public debate over the past few years. Objective: fight against climate change, domestic flights representing approximately 0.5% of total CO emissions2 French (and more if we also take into account the effect of contrails formed by aircraft).
The measure put in place by the government is based on a simple principle: prohibit journeys for which an alternative of less than two and a half hours by train exists. But in fact, only three connections will be affected by this ban: Paris-Orly – Bordeaux, Paris-Orly – Lyon and Paris-Orly – Nantes.
With less than 5,000 annual trips, these flights represent only a minimal part of domestic air traffic in France, which accounts for nearly 200,000 each year (ie 2.5%). The measure affects approximately 500,000 annual passengers, out of a total of 16 million (3.1%). Two of these routes (Paris-Orly – Bordeaux and Paris-Orly – Lyon) had already been canceled by Air France in 2020, at the request of the government, while the third (Paris-Orly – Nantes) has been by decision of the company.
A scaled down ambition
“Commitment kept”, welcomed Emmanuel Macron announcing the implementation of the ban. However, if the executive claims to have taken up a proposal “resulting from the work of the citizens’ convention for the climate” (CCC), the measure implemented today is far from the initial ambition of the 150 citizens drawn by lot to work on reducing France’s carbon footprint. In its report published in 2020, the CCC called for the abolition of all flights in the presence of a rail alternative of less than four hours.
Only 2.5% of domestic flights affected
Source: DGAC/The world (2021 data for mainland France, including Corsica)
Clarification: the exact distribution of traffic between Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle not being detailed, we considered by a cautious approximation that Paris-Orly represented half of the services on the three routes concerned (Paris – Bordeaux , Paris–Lyon and Paris–Nantes).
While Emmanuel Macron had promised to adopt “without filter” the CCC’s proposals, it finally opted for a less ambitious system. The Climate and Resilience Law of 2021 only provides for the banning of domestic flights in the event of an alternative of less than two and a half hours. This theoretically targeted eight air routes, for 12,000 annual trips. However, the measure was once again weakened on the occasion of the drafting of the law enforcement decreewhich provides for exemptions to retain certain links.
Thus, three lines were “saved” in the name of the insufficiency of the alternative railway offer. The journeys Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle – Rennes, Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle – Lyon and Lyon-Marseille can, of course, be made by train in less than two and a half hours, but the SNCF timetables do not allow arrive sufficiently early or sufficiently late at the airport concerned, considered the government.
Two other threatened lines, Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle – Bordeaux and Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle – Nantes, were finally kept due to the method chosen by the government to calculate rail alternatives. If it takes less than two and a half hours to connect Bordeaux or Nantes to the center of Paris by TGV, the government has considered that it is necessary to measure the duration of the journey to Charles-de-Gaulle airport, located on the outskirts of the capital. Which mechanically pushed these connections above the fateful two and a half hour mark, and raises the question: aren’t the majority of trips aimed at reaching the capital, more than the airport?
Read the decryption:Article reserved for our subscribers What happened to the proposals of the climate convention?
A very limited effect on global warming
Taken in the name of the climate, the government’s measure will have only a very limited effect on France’s greenhouse gas emissions, even on the scale of aeronautics. The savings generated would be around 55,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, estimated the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Is around :
2.6% of CO emissions2 related to domestic flights, which total 2.1 million tons in 2019
0.23% of total emissions from the aviation sector in France (23.4 million tons)
It is also interesting to compare the carbon footprint of the modes of transport. By this yardstick, a passenger on a domestic flight emits on average 258 g in CO equivalent2 per kilometer traveled (trails included), compared to 147 g by car, i.e. half as much, and 3.34 g by TGV, i.e. around 80 times less.
Manon Romain, Adrien Senecat And Maxime Vaudano
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