From March 2022, domestic air connections will be banned when there is an alternative by train in less than 2.5 hours. A provision of the recent Climate Law definitively adopted last July, not at all to the taste of French airports which do not intend to let it go. “We lodged this complaint on September 17,” jointly and severally with the European branch of the Airports Council International (ACI Europe), declared the president of the French Airports Union (UAF), Thomas Juin, confirming information from the newspaper

La Tribune

. He considered that article 145 of the “Climate and resilience” law, adopted in July in France, was “legally unfounded”.

This article provides for the prohibition of "regular public air transport services for passengers concerning all air links within French territory, the journey of which is also provided on the national rail network without a connection and by several daily connections of a duration of less than two and a half hours ”.

A measure deemed "ineffective from an environmental point of view"

Thomas Juin recalled that this article was based on a European text, Article 20 of Regulation No. 1008/2008, providing for exceptions to the exercise of traffic rights "in the event of serious damage to the environment", but according to him for "local, temporary reasons" and not applicable to the subject of global warming. The European regulation is worded as follows: these restrictions have "a limited period of validity, not exceeding three years, at the end of which they are re-examined".

"We twist European law to apply a measure that will be more ineffective from an environmental point of view," said the leader of this gathering of 165 airports: the lines thus banned from March 2022 represent "0.23% »Emissions from French domestic lines.

Concretely, the connections falling within the perimeter of the law are Marseille-Lyon, Paris-Orly-Nantes, Orly-Lyon and Orly-Bordeaux.

The text nevertheless provides for exceptions for correspondence.

"In 20 years, emissions from the aviation sector have more than doubled"

The law especially ratifies the existing, since the government had forced Air France to give up the routes concerned in return for financial support in May 2020. It prohibits competitors from rushing into the breach. During parliamentary debates, the UAF had already contested the abolition of these lines, in particular Orly-Bordeaux which, before the health crisis, transported more than 560,000 travelers per year. Airports are not unaware of the challenges of global warming, stressed Thomas Juin, recalling that the sector was committed to “carbon neutrality” by 2050.

For the associations grouped together in the Climate Action Network, things are different.

"With this complaint against the removal of links that can be completed in less than 2h30, the aviation sector confirms that it prefers to close its eyes to the reality of its climate impact: in 20 years the emissions from the aviation sector have more than doubled" to represent 5% greenhouse gas emissions.

"It is urgent to close the internal lines for which there is an alternative train in less than 4 hours as recommended by the Citizen's Convention for the Climate", which could be done "now without strong constraints for users".

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