Short-haul flights between European cities have become increasingly common over the last few decades, popularized by the cheap, quick, and convenient offerings from low-cost regional carriers like EasyJet and Ryanair. But that will start to change this year. In an effort to shrink the region’s carbon output, governments across the European Union are imposing bans on short-haul flights, with new legislation taking effect as early as this spring.
One country leading such measures is France, which last spring became the world’s first major economy to enact a nationwide ban on short-haul domestic flights on routes where train journeys of two and a half hours or less exist as an alternative. When the law goes into effect in March, it will eliminate 12 percent of French domestic flights, according to The Guardian. Flights set to be eliminated include routes from Paris to popular tourist cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, and Nantes.
The French government had previously locked national flag carrier Air France into adhering to similar short-haul domestic route cutbacks in 2020 as a condition to the airline’s €7 billion ($7.9 billion) pandemic-related government bailout. The newer 2021 legislation expands that measure to apply to all airlines operating within the country.
For now, not all French regional flights will be eliminated. “Exceptions [to the ban] will be made for cities that provide connections to international flights,” says Anne-Laure Tuncer, spokesperson for France’s tourism agency.
Beyond France, other European lawmakers have proposed similar bans, with countries like Spain, Germany, and nations throughout Scandinavia considering such legislation. Austria, for one, has already begun enacting similar policies, albeit as part of a piecemeal approach, as a condition for Austrian Airlines’ pandemic bailout in 2020. Officials stipulated that the airline had to eliminate domestic flights where alternative train journeys under three hours were available, affecting the carrier's route between Vienna and Salzburg.
Although initial bans are just taking shape, more stringent European flight restrictions could already be on the horizon. Organizations like France’s Citizens’ Convention on Climate and consumer group UFC-Que Choisir have advocated for broader bans in France that would eliminate domestic flights on routes that have a rail alternative of under four hours. Global environmental group Greenpeace took those calls further still, demanding in October that the E.U. ban all short-haul flights throughout Europe in instances where a train journey of under six hours is available—the group says that such a move would impact a third of the continent’s busiest short flights and eliminate 3.5 million tons of carbon emissions per year.
However, some experts caution that while banning select short-haul flights can provide some immediacy to carbon-cutting efforts, those measures alone will not resolve the aviation industry’s much bigger carbon emissions problem. According to European air traffic management organization Eurocontrol, flights shorter than 311 miles made up 31 percent of European flights in 2020 yet contributed just over four percent of the E.U.’s total aviation emissions. In contrast, long-haul E.U. flights over 2,485 miles, for which alternative train travel is less feasible, made up six percent of all flights, but produced 52 percent of emissions.
“France’s ban on domestic short-haul flights can only be seen as a very hesitant step in the right direction,” says Herwig Schuster, a Greenpeace E.U. transport expert. The French ban will translate to less than a one-percent reduction in carbon emissions for the country’s air transport sector, according to a Greenpeace report.
Broader flight bans appear to have public support, though: A 2020 survey from the European Investment Bank found that 62 percent of Europeans support an E.U.-wide ban on short-haul flights, while 49 percent of Americans support similar measures in the U.S.
To supplement these new policies, the E.U., is aiming to double high-speed rail traffic by 2030, while even sleeker high-speed trains are due out in France in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics. And, in the meantime, travelers who do seek out domestic rail connections in the country aren’t likely to be disappointed.
French train travel is “not just a mode of transportation, but an experience in itself,” says Mark Smith, founder of train travel website The Man in Seat 61, who says France’s high-speed trains offer conveniences that planes don’t, like city center-to-city center transport, free Wi-Fi, no advance boarding requirements, and great scenery. “Through the large picture windows you see far more of France than from a plane,” he says.
Serious talks about similar bans on short-haul flights have yet to materialize in the U.S., where train infrastructure is significantly less developed. Even in the absence of such legislation, travelers should consider choosing trains over planes when feasible, experts like sustainable travel consultant Rose O’Connor say. Such sustainable options are a “value-add, rather than a sacrifice,” she says. Not only is cutting emissions a necessity of the times, O'Connor explains, but “train travel offers a sort of romance and history that plane travel simply does not.”
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