France is banning short-haul domestic flights when there is a regular and frequent train option that takes less than two and a half hours, after a 2021 climate law, No 2021-1104, received permission from the European Commission (EC).
Article 145.I of the law prohibits passenger flights “on all air routes within French territory for which there are several direct rail connections per day of less than two and a half hours,” according to the European Union decision report (pdf). Accordingly, the three routes between Paris-Orly and Bordeaux, Nantes, and Lyon will no longer be serviced by passenger flights.
The other flight routes proposed by French lawmakers—between Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport station and Bordeaux and Nantes; Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Rennes and Lyon; and Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Lyon-Marseille—are allowed to continue because of longer and unsuitable train timings….