France is also cutting down on private jets for short journeys in order to make transport greener and fairer.
France, on Tuesday, imposed a complete ban on domestic flights on short routes that can be covered by train with an aim to cut down on carbon emissions. As reported by BBC, the country has come up with a law, which mentions that any journeys that are possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train cannot be done via a flight.
Basically, the new change will rule out air travel between Paris and regional hubs such as Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux. However, the routes for connecting flights remain unaffected.
As per the latest law, the train services on the same route must be frequent, timely, and well-connected so that the passengers are easily able to travel and not take a flight for that. Also, travellers on these routes should be able to make outbound and return train journeys on the same day, considering they spend eight hours at their destination.
As per a report from Transport and Environment (T&E), the European Federation for Clean Transport, the private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights per passenger mile. Add to it, they are 50 times worse than trains.
Nonetheless, everyone is not too happy with the change, and it has irked the aviation industry. Laurent Donceel, interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), mentioned to AFP that "banning these trips will only have minimal effects" on CO2 output. He stated that governments should rather support "real and significant solutions" to the issue than banning flights.
