France: the elimination of domestic flights of less than 2h30 by train still divides
Air France planes at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, Roissy.
Due to the coronavirus epidemic, airport parking lots are full of parked planes.
(Illustrative image) Philippe LOPEZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
After heated debates, the National Assembly voted on Saturday, April 10, at first reading, the removal of several domestic airlines in the event of an alternative by train of less than 2:30.
A flagship measure of the Climate Law which is causing controversy.
This vote comes a few days before the announcement by the State of new loans to Air France which could reach four billion euros.
Aid which is not incompatible with the ban on certain domestic flights, said this Sunday, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Deputy Minister in charge of Industry.
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The
citizens' convention for the climate
demanded the abolition of domestic flights in the event of an
alternative by train
of less than 4 hours.
In the end, the option for journeys of less than 2.5 hours by train was chosen.
Flights between Paris-Orly and Nantes, Lyon or Bordeaux should therefore be canceled.
In fact, this bill ratifies what already exists, since Air France has stopped these routes.
It was one of the counterparts demanded by the government in exchange for an initial
financial support of 7 billion euros
in May 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic completely nailed its planes to the ground.
There is no question, however, that other competing operators rush into the breach, promised the Secretary of State for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
Dreaded job losses
These measures are criticized by airlines who fear for their survival and argue that the train is also polluting.
They also aroused the anger of many elected representatives of the opposition, as of the majority, especially those of the southwest, region where Airbus is based, in Toulouse, and many subcontractors.
They alert against job losses.
Some say between 8,000 and 10,000 fewer positions at Air France, as part of a savings plan.
If the text is adopted at second reading, in the National Assembly, France would be, according to Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the first country in the world to impose such restrictions to decarbonize.
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To read also: Lufthansa suffers record losses and struggles to take off again
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