With Spain now set to join France in banning short-haul flights, some are asking whether aviation is paying a disproportionate price for Europe’s climate interventions.
In a bid to cut carbon emissions and address transport inequality, France banned short haul domestic flights in spring 2023. After lobbying by the aviation sector, initial proposals for an “under four hour” rule were diluted. The measure currently prohibits air journeys that can be completed in two and half hours or less by train. The European Commission approved the ban’s legality.
Now Spain is preparing to follow in France’s footsteps, with a similar “two-and-a-half-hour rule” scrapping short-haul flights of that duration or less.
Minimal effect
Both the green lobby and aviation experts meanwhile have criticised the regulation as “symbolic”. Laurent Donceel, interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), told AFP at the time of France’s ban that “banning these trips will only have minimal effects” on CO2 output.
In October 2023, Spain’s Ecologistas en Acción released findings that up to 35% of Spain’s domestic flights could be replaced by train, which would cut the country’s carbon emissions by 10%, or about 300,000 tonnes per year. However, critics say, these figures were inflated. The estimated 10% reduction in emissions is based on research that included flights to and from Madrid.
Madrid Airport however, as an international hub, has now been excluded from the ban, meaning the reduction in carbon emissions will be a lot less impressive – as little as a 0.06% drop, according to Guillermo Mariscal, of Spain’s opposition PP party, citing data from the College of Aircraft Engineers. Mariscal has branded Spain’s ban not just “ineffective” but “outrageous”. Spain would be exchanging 4.5 million tourists per year for a tiny reduction in emissions, he says.
What’s more, critics such as Spanish airline association, ALA, question the point of the ban, noting that, “passengers have already shifted from planes to trains”. Up to 80% of Spanish domestic routes are now operated by train, and for Madrid – Valencia, over 90% of travellers already take the train instead of plane.
Impact on long-haul international connections
Spain has made concessions to these critics. The decision to exclude Madrid from the scope of the ban was made partly to appease carriers and to alleviate concerns about the impact of the ban on international travellers.
If a hub for long-haul flight connections like Madrid could no longer receive short-haul flights, those making onward international journeys could find themselves having to make currently very inconvenient train connections, a situation that could potentially worsen if the short-haul flight bans were to spread across other European nations.
Taxes and green levies
Donceel meanwhile has called for governments to support “real and significant solutions” to the issue instead. Some other approaches have included a €10 tax on flights within 500 km of Brussels Airport in Belgium; and a 75% hike in taxes on domestic and European routes in Germany.
Still to come, Denmark is bringing in a 50 Danish kroner (€6.71) green levy per passenger for European flights in 2025. And from 2026, the European Union is removing free carbon offsetting permits, meaning airlines will have to make choices about passing these costs onto flyers.
