France has formally banned domestic flights on short routes that can be covered by train in less than two-and-a-half hours — a move aimed at reducing airline emissions. 

Paris and Lyon are about 400 kilometres apart. Taking a flight would take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, with a high-speed train it would take about 1 hour and 57 minutes.

In an effort to reduce France's emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, short-haul flights will no longer be available. 

Although the measure was included in a 2021 climate law and already applied in practice, some airlines had asked the European Commission to investigate whether it was legal.

The change will mostly rule out air trips between Paris and regional hubs such as Nantes, Lyon (both about a five-hour drive) and Bordeaux (almost a six-and-a-half hour drive), with connecting flights unaffected.

Critics have noted that the cut-off point for comparable train journeys is shy of the roughly three hours it takes to travel from Paris to the Mediterranean port city Marseille by high-speed rail.

The law states that train services on the same route must be able to absorb the increase in passenger numbers and that they must be frequent, timely and well connected to meet needs of the passengers who would otherwise take a short-haul flight. 

People making such trips should be able to make outbound and return train journeys on the same day, having spent eight hours at their destination.

The government had already secured Air France's compliance with the plan in exchange for a 2020 coronavirus financial support package.

Competitors were banned from simply filling the gap.

'Symbolic bans' 

Laurent Donceel, who is the interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E) said governments should support "real and significant solutions" to airline emissions, rather than "symbolic bans".

Brussels had found that "banning these trips will only have minimal effects" on CO2 output, he added.

A4E highlighted its own net zero by 2050 strategy, which includes switching to jet fuel from non-fossil sources and deploying battery- or hydrogen-powered aircraft.

The step comes as French politicians have also been debating how to reduce emissions from private jets.

While Green MPs have called for banning small private flights altogether, Transport Minister Clement Beaune last month trailed a higher climate charge for users from next year.

ABC/wires