France has banned short-haul domestic flights. It is the first country in the world to introduce such a measure. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions. Yet, environmentalists are still not happy with the measure. They say it is insufficient to achieve any real effect.
The ban is on flights between cities that can be reached in 2 hours and 50 minutes by train. For example, it will no longer be possible to fly from Paris to Nantes, Bordeaux, or Lyon.
The German Lufthansa Airlines has already adopted a similar approach by offering the Lufthansa Express Rail. For example, there is an alternative to flying the short-haul domestic flight from Frankfurt Airport to Dusseldorf to take a train ride for about an hour and a half.
The Lufthansa Express Rail offers multiple benefits and it is the same as taking the plane. You will travel on high-speed trains from many German stations to Frankfurt Airport and arrive conveniently for your flight departure with sufficient layover times. If you have one or multiple flight changes, and one of them is scheduled on the Lufthansa train flight there is a transfer guarantee. What that means is that passengers will be rebooked automatically onto the next flight or train and they will be notified accordingly.
Other airlines that partnered with train services in Europe are:
- Austrian Airlines via the Austrian AIRail
- easyJet partnering with Deutsch Bahn (DB) to offer connections from its hub at Berlin Brandenburg Airport
- the Spanish Iberia offers rail connections via Madrid to popular Spanish cities
- KLM is working with the French-Belgium train operator Thalys
- The low-cost Spanish airline Vueling collaborated with DB offering rail to plain connections in Germany.
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