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It's official: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel:
France has been given the green light to ban short haul domestic flights.
The European Commission has approved the move which will abolish flights between cities that are linked by a train journey of less than 2.5 hours.
[...] France is also cracking down on the use of private jets for short journeys in a bid to make transport greener and fairer for the population.
Transport minister Clément Beaune said the country could no longer tolerate the super rich using private planes while the public are making cutbacks to deal with the energy crisis and climate change.
[...] The ban on short-haul flights will be valid for three years, after which it must be reassessed by the Commission.
"[This] is a major step forward in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions," transport minister Beaune said in a press release.
[...] Sarah Fayolle, Greenpeace France transport campaign manager, told Euronews that there were both "negative and positive aspects" to the European Commission's decision given that only three routes are affected.
"It's going in the right direction, but the initial measure is one that's (not very) ambitious. We must go even further," she said.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11, @08:15PM
More from the link (near the end of the article)--
It was hard to find numbers, but it looks like the US could be significantly higher % private takeoffs?
The thing is, once you've flown private (even "general aviation" prop planes) it's hard to go back to commercial and dealing with airport-lines/TSA/baggage-damage/etc. The few times I flew private (only once on a small jet) the experience is completely different--drive to the other side of the big airport, park near the building, walk into the lobby, talk with receptionist. Pilots already there doing pre-flight, board the plane (no security) and go. Roughly 10 minutes from airport arrival to departure.
When we chartered small twin-engine prop planes (lower speed) for business we usually flew to a small airport very close to our destination. More often than not, the FBO (fixed base operator) would have a car waiting for us just as we got off the plane. This could easily save a couple of hours between renting a car and then driving further from the big regional airport to final destination. Believe it or not, we did this to save money--with three of us going to a customer site, it was usually cheaper to charter the Beech Baron than fly commercial (this was c.1990) for a one day out-and-back trip.
For a car analogy (and assuming you are not your own pilot/driver), would you rather be driven in a car/cab/uber directly to your destination...or take the bus?