Short-haul flights ban in France: Relevant potential but yet modest effects of GHG emissions reduction

The French government has taken a new measure of limiting the exercise of traffic rights to reduce emissions, in particular, the bill to ban short-haul flights where a train alternative of 2:30 h or less exists. Here we quantify the impact of this measure in economic and environmental terms. The results show that although this measure goes in the right direction, it is less effective than expected in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from domestic aviation. The adoption of the measure is less ambitious than originally envisaged, and it crucially leaves important domestic air routes out of the ban. As data shows, there is a substitution effect between routes that do not meet the objective of reducing flights and therefore GHG emissions. Moreover, alternative scenarios to the one currently approved have been presented and examined, both in terms of potential extension of routes banned and in substitution effects. Thus, the results show that with this minor modification of the currently approved measure, the substitution effects are removed, and the currently reduced emissions are more than tripled.