Liaisons entering the perimeter of the law are Marseille-Lyon, Paris-Orly – Nantes, Orly-Lyon and Orly-Bordeaux.
Le Monde with AFP
The French airports announced, Tuesday, October 19, having initiated an appeal before the European Commission to obtain the annulment of the prohibition of internal air routes when the trip can be done without correspondence in less than two hours thirty provided by the recent French climate and resilience law.
“This complaint was filed on 17 September”, severally with the European branch of the International Airport Council (ACI Europe), said the President of the Union of French Airports (UAF), Thomas June, confirming information From the newspaper The Tribune . He felt that Article 145 of the Climate and Resilience Act, adopted in July in France, was “unfounded legally”.
This article provides for the prohibition of “regular public passenger air transport services for all aerial links within the French territory whose journey is also provided on the non-correspondence national rail network and by several daily links. a duration less than two thirty “.
m. June 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 case of serious environmental impairment”, but , according to him, for “local, temporary reasons” and does not apply to global warming.
Rase of 165 airports
The European Regulation is thus formulated: these restrictions have “a limited period of validity, not exceeding three years, at the end of which they are reconsidered”.
“On twists European law to apply a measure that will be more ineffective from an environmental point of view,” said the leader of this rally of 165 airports: the lines thus prohibited from March 2022 represent “0 , 23% “emissions from French inland lines.
If the text nevertheless provides exceptions for correspondence, the links entering the perimeter of the law are:
- Marseille-Lyon
- Paris-Orly – Nantes
- Orly-Lyon
- Orly-Bordeaux
The law endorses the existing, since the government had forced Air France to give up the relevant links for financial support in May 2020. It prohibits competitors from rushing into the breach.
“Carbon neutrality” by 2050
During parliamentary debates, the UAF had already challenged the removal of these lines, in particular Orly-Bordeaux, on which, before the health crisis, more than 560,000 people traveled a year.
Airports are not unaware of the challenges of global warming, “said June, recalling that the sector had committed to” carbon neutrality “by 2050.
For associations grouped into the Climate Action network, it’s different. “With this complaint against the removal of feasible links in less than two thirty hours, the air sector confirms that it prefers to turn a blindness on the reality of its climate impact: in twenty years, air sector emissions have more than doubled” , representing 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. “It is urgent to close the inner lines for which there is a train alternative in less than four hours, as recommended by the Citizen Climate Convention”, which could be “right now without stress for users” .