France approved a new domestic flight ban in 2021, and it finally took effect on May 23. The policy blocks flights between cities when a rail alternative under two and a half hours exists. Transport Minister Clément Beaune called it a strong symbol and a world first, yet the measure’s concrete impact remains modest. Although France was the first European country to adopt such a policy, the practical results in cutting air traffic and CO2 emissions have been limited by its design and implementation.
This provision sits within a broader climate law passed two years earlier. It has yet to be fully enforced due to objections from aviation employers and an investigation by the European Commission. The 2021 legislation aimed to implement many proposals from the Citizens’ Climate Convention, a parliament of 150 randomly selected citizens that suggested numerous measures to tackle climate change. While the government pledged to adopt them with minimal filtering, President Emmanuel Macron ultimately negotiated limited content around some items, including the domestic flights ban.
Only three routes affected
The Citizens’ Convention proposed suspending air travel on routes where a rail alternative of under four hours existed. The goal was to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from air transport, long regarded as among the most polluting modes of transport. On average, a passenger on a domestic French flight emits about 258 grams of CO2 per kilometer, compared with 147 grams by car and only 3.34 grams by high‑speed rail.
The administration decided to limit flight suspensions to cases where a rail option would take less than 150 minutes, and this choice further diminished the measure’s impact. Rail distance is calculated from airport to town via the closest high‑speed rail station, not necessarily between the cities themselves, and it also considers whether direct, regular rail connections exist and whether ticket prices are affordable.
Consequently, only three air connections were affected: routes from Paris Orly to Lyon, Nantes, and Bordeaux. Air France maintained the Paris Charles de Gaulle hub connections to those same destinations, keeping the majority of domestic links intact.
0.01% reduction in CO2 emissions
Critics like Greenpeace France noted that the bans touched only a tiny portion of intra‑country routes. The measure’s climate benefit appeared negligible to observers. Minister Beaune promised further action, expressing hope that other European nations would follow suit, but the immediate gains remained underwhelming in the eyes of many environmental advocates.
When the policy took effect on May 24, two of the affected lines had already been halted by Air France in 2020, at the government’s request, and the third was canceled by the airline itself. The overall impact accounted for fewer than 5,000 trips per year, roughly 2.5 percent of all domestic flights, and about 3 percent of domestic air passengers.
The Citizens’ Convention had aimed to cut emissions from domestic flights by a third. In practice, the measure touched only about 2.6 percent of those emissions and roughly 0.23 percent of France’s aviation emissions, or about 0.01 percent of total CO2 emissions in the neighboring country. While the ban set an interesting precedent, its scope remains limited and its effects modest. In the long run, the policy illustrates the challenge of translating ambitious climate proposals into broad, practical changes. Overall, the impact was small, and the policy stands as a cautious step in the larger effort to decarbonize transport.