There have been months of intense negotiations between the Elysium, which wanted to launch its "Climate and resilience" plan and the EU Commission, inundated with appeals. Now the green light has arrived: the French government will be able prohibit internal air connections – on short distances – when travelers have the alternative available of the train. In particular, flights may be halted if the train guarantees the same route as the plane, i.e. the same connection between two cities, with less than two and a half hours travel along the tracks.
The conditions requested by the European Commission
The green light from Europe to the French, however, is now subject to certain conditions, as reported by La Repubblica. These are the conditions:
- the railway connection must be guaranteed several times a day, and without changing trains;
- it will also have to be two-way, with round trips on the same route;
- frequencies must be sufficient and always at suitable times for passengers;
- between departure and return by train, the traveler must be able to stay at least 8 hours in the city of arrival.
But then there are other variables. The EU Commission takes into consideration that the high-speed train reach the airports of two French cities: Paris Charles de Gaulle e Lyon Saint-Exupéry. If, for example, the Elysée wishes to ban a short flight from Lyon, because the train makes the same journey with less than two and a half hours of travel time, this ban can be established on condition that the train leaves directly from the airport high-speed platform (one way) and land on the same high-speed platform (one way back). The prohibition is therefore not applicable if different stations or platforms are used: Paris has seven stations, Lyon seven between stations and stopping points.
One of the effects of this condition is that the French government will not be able to block the flight between Paris and Bordeaux, for example, even if it is short. The ban will not go into effect despite the train connecting Bordeaux and Paris' Montparnasse station in two hours and ten minutes (without high speed) as the high speed rail (TGV) link between Bordeaux and Charles de Gaulle airport takes 3 hours instead and 45 minutes.
One year of appeals. The reasons of the Commission
The ban on short flights is written into French law “Climate and resilience” (Climate and resilience) of 22 August 2021. Solicited by one rain of appeals, the EU Commission was entitled to judge such a provision for at least two reasons.
It must protect the freedom of enterprise of airlines, which French law limits to preserve the environment from carbon dioxide emissions. Above all, the EU Commission supervises the consumer law to choose between multiple services (train and plane) in competition with each other.
The benefits on pollution
In general, the EU Commission considers the French law "Climat e résilience" legitimate and even effective. Effective in terms of environmental benefits. For the EU Commission, the estimates of the Paris government are reliable according to which the mere blocking of flights from Orly to Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes causes a savings of 55 thousand tons of CO2 in the year (based on 2019 air traffic data).
What happens in Italy?
The French law on short flights sets a precedent for all other European Union countries. In Italy, the problem of competition between planes and trains - on short distances - would come back to the table if Ferrovie dello Stato enters the capital of Ita Airways.
For its part, Trenitalia is already proposing packages that encourage the use of the train. On the occasion of the presentation of the winter program the CEO of Trenitalia, Luigi Corradi said that "the commitment for the future is to enhance and encourage the choice of the train, the green means par excellence, favoring collective and interconnected modes of transport, also combining them effectively with other means of transport".
Ita had experimented with an air connection between Rome and Florence, then suspended in June due to lack of passengers: this would be a flight that would no longer have any reason to get back on track.
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