France bans short domestic flights in favor of high-speed train service

City hopping within France is grounded.

Travelers looking to fly within the European country will no longer be able to take a short domestic flight when there’s alternative high-speed rail service, according to a new ban signed into law on Tuesday.

“As we fight relentlessly to decarbonize our lifestyles, how can we justify the use of the plane between the big cities which benefit from regular, fast and efficient connections by train?” Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport, said in a statement.

The move is part of the country’s larger commitment to decarbonize transport, which accounts for 30% of emissions, according to the statement.

The decree bans short-haul flights when the train journey takes less than two and a half hours.

Which flights are affected?

So far, only three routes, not including connecting flights, have been affected: Paris-Orly airport between Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon.

In three years the country will evaluate the decree’s success and possibly ban more routes.

Some question the actual impact of the ban. According to Europe-based nonprofit organization Transport & Environment, the three banned routes only represent 3% of France’s mainland domestic flight emissions.

Europe has been working on improving its transport infrastructure as part of the recent TEN-T project, including faster, more efficient rail service.

In 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested domestic flights of less than four hours to be banned if someone could just take the train. The current two-and-a-half-hour ban was introduced in 2021 after pushback from groups such as airline Air France-KLM.

Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: France bans short domestic flights in favor of train service