According to a study by the Civil Aviation Authority, the impact of the citizens' convention measures on the aeronautics sector would be catastrophic.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

There are slogans and there is reality.

Experts from the Civil Aviation Department wanted to measure the impact of the measures proposed by the citizens' climate convention on the aviation sector.

The result is terrifying.

Of the 149 measures of the citizens' climate convention, eight directly concern air transport.

With two wildly exciting guidelines: ban and tax.

Ban any new airport, ban the extension of existing ones, ban domestic flights if the destination is accessible in less than four hours and ban advertising planes in summer above the beaches.

Tax leisure aviation and especially tax all flights, short or long.

With an "eco-contribution", it looks greener but it is nothing more than a tax whose objective, like the previous measures, is to discourage people from taking the plane.

This eco-contribution project alarms the aviation sector.

There is something.

The Directorate of Civil Aviation has made its calculations: an eco-contribution of 4.2 billion, as is proposed, would lead to the elimination of 120,000 to 150,000 jobs and a drop in air traffic of around 20%.

In short, it would be an absolute disaster.

This would reduce CO2 emissions, except that air transport only represents 1.4% of French emissions in total.

In short, the economic and social cost would be exorbitant and the benefit for the planet would be marginal.

The government will have to choose between what environmentalists demand and the interests of the airline industry.

The Ministry of Ecological Transition is organizing a conference on the subject this Saturday with all stakeholders in order to prepare a bill.

What is happening on the air is reminiscent of what we have known about nuclear power with the closure of Fessenheim, which is an aberration for anyone who wants to reduce CO2 emissions.

Like nuclear, aeronautics is a sector of French excellence with very large groups such as Airbus, Dassault, Thalès or Safran and hundreds of world-class subcontractors.

Unfortunately, like nuclear power, the aviation sector is threatened by measures the sole purpose of which is to gain a good ecological conscience.