UK Telegraph: The French plan to save the planet? Stop poorer people flying – Seeking ‘a minimum price for airfares within the EU in a bid to reduce the number of flights’ to reduce CO2 emissions

From CLIMATE DEPOT

By Marc Morano

The truth about the green elite’s Net Zero agenda https://t.co/h2bx3r221V pic.twitter.com/MfEysZ8C3a

— Net Zero Watch (@NetZeroWatch) September 22, 2023

UK Telegraph: The French plan to save the planet? Stop poorer people flying – Minimum prices for air tickets, proposed by France, will hurt the less well off without doing anything to reduce the number of flights

Excerpts: By John Arlidge: I was living in Edinburgh when I first saw an advertisement that would transform air travel. “Making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans – £29 one-way.” The fare for EasyJet’s first flights from Luton to Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1995, celebrated in its inaugural advertisement campaign, seems rather pricey by modern standards. You can get a ticket on that route on EasyJet for less than £29 today and fares on some other low-cost carriers can be under a tenner.

But cheap deals might be a thing of the past. France is seeking support from other European Union countries for a minimum price for airfares within the EU in a bid to reduce the number of flights in Europe and reduce the aviation sector’s CO2 emissions. Transport Minister Clement Beaune wants to “open the debate on the fair social and environmental price of a flight ticket”. The Netherlands and Belgium support the idea in principle. Although Brexit means flights from Britain to EU countries might not be covered by any new EU price policies, flights from the bloc to the UK would be.

France has already banned domestic flights for journeys that are possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train. The Dutch government is going ahead with plans to cap the number of flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport next year, pending EU approval, in a bid to reduce noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The good news for consumers is that EU complexities mean the French minimum pricing proposal is unlikely to become law. Two years ago Austria proposed a similar measure, but legal issues around the rights of companies freely to set their own prices across the EU meant the government abandoned it. EU leaders often find it hard to reach agreement on aviation matters. Talks on aviation fuel taxes have run into the sand, with some governments opposed to passing measures that could raise prices for voters ahead of EU elections next year. With a bit of luck, Paris’s half-cooked idea will also fail and EU governments will, instead, begin to put new technology, not higher fares, at the top of their environmental to-do list.

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Tom Halla
September 23, 2023 6:08 pm

Despising the hoi polloi is a feature of the Green Blob.

observa
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 23, 2023 6:22 pm

The Green Blob isn’t as big as they’d have you believe and hence their jackboot of compulsion when they run out of cheap slushfunds-
Watt shortage? Electric car wait times are over, thousands ready for immediate delivery – Drive

Tom Halla
Reply to  observa
September 23, 2023 6:30 pm

I hope the Greens prove to be brittle.

MarkW
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 23, 2023 6:34 pm

Despising the rif-raf has always been a characteristic of the left.

Tom Halla
Reply to  MarkW
September 23, 2023 7:05 pm

And the aristocratic Right.The problem is that the Right never really existed in the US, as strictly speaking, it refers to Royalists. Socialists call Libertarians “right wing”, but each is quite far from a Royalist.

186no
Reply to  MarkW
September 24, 2023 2:15 am

….whilst happily accepting their Union tithe to Milbank Towers….is it not funny that the Ultra Far Left Wokery is revealed in plain sight so often, it beggars belief that more don’t “see” it. Perhaps the 100+ years of taking a lead – and more – from Moscow and Peking is so blindingly bleeding obvious it is like a never ending staircase illusion.

gezza1298
Reply to  MarkW
September 24, 2023 6:28 am

When the Labour party was founded its ethos was quite conservative and looked to improve things for the working class. Today’s Labour party despises the working class as they are not woke, don’t support unlimited immigration, most likely voted for Brexit and are proud of their country.

MarkW
Reply to  gezza1298
September 24, 2023 10:53 am

Labour may have claimed they were trying to help workers, however the policies they push, from the beginning, has been harmful to workers.

John XB
Reply to  MarkW
September 24, 2023 6:49 am

It’s called social distancing. Although I am guilty of this too as I always try to travel First Class.

DMacKenzie
September 23, 2023 6:23 pm

Just cancel air travel rewards programs. Instant 20% drop in air travel. But Governments won’t do that cuz it wouldn’t be popular with anyone who thinks they should get a “free” vacation to somewhere warm on somebody else’s tab, which is pretty well all COP, socialist, and green leaners….

Pat from Kerbob
Reply to  DMacKenzie
September 24, 2023 5:26 am

How is me using my aeroplan points on “someone else’s tab”

DMacKenzie
Reply to  Pat from Kerbob
September 24, 2023 7:15 am

It just ‘feels free’ when you exchange points for air travel, and greenies are big on ‘feelings’. You are enlightened and know that you have actually paid for that ticket. But my point is that if people had to ante-up hard cash for their airfare when that urge for a flight to Ibiza hits them, flights would drop significantly.

Frank @TxTradCatholic
September 23, 2023 6:25 pm

A “Transport Minister” who thinks his job is to determine “the fair social and environmental price of a flight ticket” ought to be unemployed.

barryjo
Reply to  Frank @TxTradCatholic
September 23, 2023 6:46 pm

And we all know where the numbers to justify such pricing will originate.

2hotel9
September 23, 2023 6:32 pm

Really? No body flies in EU.They ride their fruity little bikes everywhere. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

HB
Reply to  2hotel9
September 23, 2023 6:52 pm

and drive and catch the train

Redge
Reply to  HB
September 23, 2023 11:17 pm

Not in the UK, the train unions are always on strike and the cost of a ticket is way too high

1saveenergy
Reply to  Redge
September 24, 2023 2:42 am

Holyhead North Wales
to Cardiff South Wales
by train
Transport for Wales operates a train from Holyhead to Cardiff Central every 4 hours. Single Tickets cost £65 – £150 and
the 260 mile journey takes between 4h 51m -6h 5m –
depending on time of train you could have to change trains at –
Chester, Crewe, Stafford & Bristol or Shrewsbury,
& depending on time of day you could be standing for most of the way !!

by car
188.3 miles, 4h 12min, fuel cost:£51–74. cost/per head with 4 people =£18.50
so faster, cheaper & more convenient !!

It doesnot add up
Reply to  1saveenergy
September 24, 2023 5:41 am

It will be a lot longer than 4 hrs 12 min by car with the new Welsh 20mph speed limits. Next year your car will have to be preceded by someone carrying a red flag for Welsh socialism.

anorak2
Reply to  2hotel9
September 23, 2023 10:42 pm

This sounds like you haven’t been to Europe lately. The EU has been the Mecca of low cost air travel in the last two decades. As far as I can tell it’s quite a bit cheaper than domestic US air travel, even now after inflation. With some luck and cleverness using search engines you can travel for 15 EUR return for flights up to 90 minutes, even though 50ish is more typical. But if you pay more than 100 return between any two destinations within Europe (including the UK and other non-EU countries), you’re doing something wrong.

You can do short sightseeing or party trips each weekend through the year even if your income isn’t so great, they call it the “EasyJetSet”. The low prices only apply to European domestic flights and some connections to the Middle East, but not much beyond. So no 15 EUR transatlantic tickets unfortunately.

It has come about because of deregulation policies of the EU. And this is what the Greens and the snobs don’t like, hence they launch initiatives to end it all every now and then. But so far it’s still the state of affairs.

John XB
Reply to  anorak2
September 24, 2023 6:52 am

Greens = Left = Socialist. They are ideologically opposed to free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and consumer choice.

2hotel9
Reply to  anorak2
September 24, 2023 7:22 am

So, you clearly illustrate you are incapable of grasping sarcasm and humor. Got it.

MarkW
September 23, 2023 6:33 pm

I’ve been saying for years, that the desire to reduce the number of plane flights was just a cover to reduce the number of rif-raf at the elites favorite vacation spots.

macromite
September 23, 2023 6:46 pm

One of the hypotheses I’ve heard to explain part of the anti-humanist Green Agenda is to compare it to the sumptuary laws that have been used throughout history by elites to restrict the consumption of their ‘inferiors’. It is difficult to maintain an elite pose if the common people can live as well as they can. Same for the petty aristocracy – they need to be controlled by their betters once the hoi polloi have been dealt with.

You’d think that Macron and the other WEF elitists would know enough about French history to be more wary in their choices of repression. If they should end up like the Ancien Régime, though, I for one would not miss them. I doubt there is an Antoine Lavoisier among them who would be missed once they were gone.

leefor
September 23, 2023 7:34 pm

Of course if they keep the same number of flights it means more emissions per passenger. 😉

John XB
Reply to  leefor
September 24, 2023 6:55 am

And… under EU regulation for an airline to retain its operating licence between two destinations, it must operate a certain number of flights according to the scheduled times.

Therefore airlines fly empty planes back and forth to maintain frequency and number and keep their licences. That saves buckets of CO2 emissions – but rulz iz rulz.

Bob
September 23, 2023 7:45 pm

The solution is that all those who believe climate change is man made can not fly not at any price. That will leave more flights for those of us who think climate change is natural.

John XB
Reply to  Bob
September 24, 2023 6:56 am

Or have ICE cars or travel on anything not a BEV.

bnice2000
September 23, 2023 9:50 pm
Ed Zuiderwijk
September 24, 2023 1:30 am

The car, the plane: they stand for one thing: Freedom. The freedom of traveling, of having the choice to visit places you want to see and go to.

Net Zero means: no car, no travel for the masses, only travel for the chosen few. Net Zero also means no more having a choice in what you eat.

Welcome to North Korea.

Doug Huffman
September 24, 2023 3:29 am

The costs of flying, inconvenience, expense, offense, led me to buy a 6000# DIESEL BMW X5 INTERSTATE CRUISER, hopefully my last automobile purchase.

Ed Zuiderwijk
September 24, 2023 3:34 am

Marie Antoinette: let them eat cake
Emmanuel Macron: let them go on their bikes (or take the bus)

John XB
September 24, 2023 6:47 am

Well let’s have a look at context.

France is to ban internal short haul flights and force people to use the train. The railways – SNCF – are State owned and losing money due to falling passenger numbers.

Air-France-KLM is 28% owned by the French Govt and has been losing heavily for over a decade. Like all French companies its workforce is bloated and getting rid of any is a major union problem. Introducing minimum fares will certainly get rid of a lot of non-French owned budget airline competition with which France is well served.

Competition – creative destruction – is a hanging (guillotining) offence in France, it is unfair because it means job reductions and business owners can’t get as much profit as they expect. Consumers should expect to pay more to protect jobs and businesses.

The relationship between business interests and the French Governing class is a masterclass in protectionism, and corporate and union cronyism. France operates a Dirigiste economic model, that is State direction of the economy to serve the interests of the State. Benito would be proud – if still with us.

So. Worry about the climate or a good way to protect French State, political, business and union interests? It’s a tough question.

DMacKenzie
Reply to  John XB
September 24, 2023 7:24 am

Consumers should expect to pay more to protect jobs and businesses.

Money is a measure of human effort. So the question is whether it is worth the effort in non monetary ways when something costs more. I don’t think more profit for business owners is a justifiable cost burden on the public….better to have those business owners find something else they are good at….

ResourceGuy
Reply to  John XB
September 25, 2023 9:58 am

Yes, my first thought was the state railway system.

ResourceGuy
September 25, 2023 9:54 am

Tax the American tourists, they won’t notice.

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