KLM encourages passengers to take the train for some short flights, to slightly reduce aviation CO2

KLM’s chief executive, Marjan Rintel, has encouraged passengers to take the train rather than fly on some short-haul journeys to help cut carbon emissions, saying the airline sector should stop viewing rail as a competitor.  National governments in Europe have been taking action to get people on to high-speed trains instead of short-haul flights, to reduce aviation CO2 emissions.  Air France, which comes under the same holding company as KLM, stopped flying domestic routes where there are rail or coach alternatives taking under two and a half hours in 2020, as part of measures it agreed to with the French government in exchange for aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.  This was changed last week, when the EU only approved this for 3 routes, Paris-Orly and Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon – and their connecting flights exempted. In June, the Dutch government announced plans to cut flights from Schiphol by over 10% to 440,000 a year. The move is likely to lead to a sharp reduction in short-haul flights from Schiphol, meaning the KLM boss can advocate rail trips. Rintel said KLM had already block-booked seats on the train service linking Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris .
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KLM encourages passengers to take the train to cut emissions

Marjan Rintel: ‘If you’re serious on reaching your sustainability goals, the train is not a competitor. We need to work together’

By Robert Wright and Peggy Hollinger (FT)

6.12.2022

KLM’s chief executive has encouraged passengers to take the train rather than fly on some short-haul journeys to help cut carbon emissions, saying the airline sector should stop viewing rail as a competitor.

“If [you] have a good alternative you should really use it,” Marjan Rintel told the Financial Times in an interview. “If you’re serious on reaching your sustainability goals, the train is not a competitor. We need to work together.”

She also said she used the train when she travelled from Amsterdam, where KLM is based, to the Paris headquarters of parent company Air France-KLM.

National governments in Europe have been taking action to get people on to high-speed trains instead of short-haul flights and cut the carbon cost of flying.

Air France, the French carrier which comes under the same holding company as KLM, stopped flying domestic routes where there are rail or coach alternatives taking under two and a half hours in 2020, as part of measures it agreed to with the French government in exchange for aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.

French parliamentarians later passed a bill formalising the ban on short term flights, a measure approved by the EU last week. Effectively, however, the changes only affect three routes from Paris, with connecting flights for instance exempted.

In June, the Dutch government announced plans to slash flights from Schiphol airport by more than 10 per cent to 440,000 a year. The move is likely to lead to a sharp reduction in short-haul flights from the airport and could put a brake on national flag carrier KLM’s future growth.

Rintel said KLM had already block-booked seats on the train service linking Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris in response, and she had urged the business “to develop the relationships with the Dutch railways, to see what we can do at short notice to motivate our customers to go by train to Brussels or Paris”.

KLM was also looking at making it easier to buy flight and train tickets in a single booking and was in discussions with rail companies in the Netherlands and France about making transfers easier, Rintel said.

Baggage services could be integrated, allowing customers to drop off luggage at an airport and collect it at the end of a train journey, for example. “As a customer you always look at the final destination . . . so you must offer a product like this,” she said.

Rintel worked for six years for Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), the Netherlands’ state-owned train operator, and was chief executive of the group for nearly two years before leaving for KLM in July this year.

However, she expressed no interest in becoming directly involved in running train services and said the airline would work with NS and the Eurostar Group, owner of the cross-Channel Eurostar service and of the Thalys service linking France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

Rintel took over as chief after a period of strained relations between KLM and its parent company. Varying performances between the airlines had caused tensions as group chief executive Ben Smith sought to squeeze benefits from closer co-operation. The strains culminated in the Dutch government’s decision to take a 14 per cent stake in Air France-KLM in 2019 to protect KLM’s interests.

Rintel said stability of operations was her priority after airport chaos this summer forced airlines to substantially cut the number of flights to cope with long delays.

“Next to that, building relationships” with stakeholders, including the Dutch government, was a priority. “The enemy is not in the group. There will be consolidation all over Europe. We will be in new exceptional times and we need to be strong together,” she said.

The airline has threatened to take legal action over the Schiphol cuts but Rintel said this was not yet decided. “We have claims on the table. My first objective is Schiphol delivering the capacity we need.”

https://www.ft.com/content/6e1af2ed-bc84-4f1b-b543-4e3e775362b4

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See also:

EU approves France’s short-haul flight ban — but only for 3 routes

The new plan will cancel domestic flights that can be replaced by a short train journey.

BY MARI ECCLES (Politico)

DECEMBER 2, 2022

The European Commission has approved France’s plan to ban short-haul flights when there’s a decent rail alternative — but it will only affect three routes.

French lawmakers in 2021 voted to prohibit short-haul domestic flights when there’s an alternative rail connection of two and a half hours or less. The original proposal, which required the green light from Brussels, was slated to affect eight routes.

Now the Commission has said the ban can only take place if there are genuine rail alternatives available for the same route — meaning several direct connections each way every day.

That means only three routes will currently fall under the ban: journeys between Paris-Orly and Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon.

The EU executive said France was justified to introduce the measure provided it is “non-discriminatory, does not distort competition between air carriers, is not more restrictive than necessary to relieve the problem.”

Three more routes could be added — between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Lyon and Rennes, and between Lyon and Marseille — if rail services improve.

Those routes currently don’t meet the threshold because travelers trying to get to airports in Paris and Lyon don’t have a rail connection that would get them in early enough in the morning or late enough in the evening.

Two other proposed routes — from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Bordeaux and Nantes — were excluded from the measure because the rail journey time falls above the two-and-a-half-hour limit.

The Commission also removed a proposed exemption to the ban that the French government wanted to apply to domestic flights that are part of a multi-stop international journey. The overall measure should last only three years, with a review after two, it said.

“This is a major step forward and I am proud that France is a pioneer in this area,” France’s Transport Minister Clément Beaune said in an emailed statement.

Green groups were also encouraged by the Commission approval, but stressed that the country has to do much more to decarbonize transport.

“The French ban on short-haul flights where quick train connections exist is a baby step, but it’s one in the right direction,” said Thomas Gelin, Greenpeace’s EU climate campaigner.

French Green MEP Karima Delli described the news as a “victory,” but said that the legislation should have been extended to cover flights that could be replaced by a four-hour train journey.

That was the original idea for the flight ban as proposed by France’s Citizens’ Convention on Climate, a citizens’ assembly tasked with making proposals for reducing the country’s carbon emissions. The scope was narrowed following objections by some French regions and by Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM.

Delli also argued that private jets should be included within the measure. Beaune said this summer he wanted to see more EU-wide measures against private planes, following popular backlash against them in France.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-greenlights-frances-short-haul-ban-but-only-on-3-routes/


See earlier:

France: domestic short-haul flights to be banned where train takes under 2.5 hours

The French government has become the first large economy to ban short-haul flights where a train or bus alternative of two and a half hours or less exists.  This was voted on in 2021 and came into effect in April 2022. The intention is to reduce the country’s aviation CO2 emissions and might have the effect of eliminating 12% of French domestic flights, such as those between Paris to cities such as Bordeaux, Nantes or Lyon. In 2021, the French government bailed out Air France with €7 billion after suffering Covid losses, and it made the condition that the airline become more environmental conscious. The government asked other airlines to do the same, as the absence of Air France flights might offer low-cost carriers an opportunity to move in and offer the same flights.  And the French government does not want Air France to be undercut, on international routes from Paris, by other airlines if too many domestic links are removed. Eurocontrol found flights shorter than 311 miles made up 31% of European flights in 2020 yet contributed just over 4% of the EU’s total aviation emissions. And EU flights over 2,485 miles, for which alternative train travel is less feasible, made up 6% of all flights, but produced 52% of emissions. So the French move will have little CO2 impact. 

https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2022/04/france-domestic-short-haul-flights-to-be-banned-where-train-takes-under-2-5-hours/

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France to ban commercial flights on shortest domestic routes

France plans to ban commercial air travel on the country’s shortest domestic routes in a bid to prevent low-cost carriers picking up links Air France-KLM is being forced to abandon as part of the terms of a Government bailout package. The aim of stopping Air France from flying domestic routes, if the trip can be made by train in under 2.5 hours, to cut CO2 emissions, is not to allow in other airlines instead. Austria has also placed constraints on short-haul flights, as part of a state-funding plan for Deutsche Lufthansa. The domestic flights ban would include about 40% of internal French flights. The carbon reductions achieved by this would actually be tiny – about 6-7% of Air France’s total. Ryanair plans to operate 6 French domestic routes this summer, but says they are on longer routes, not included in the ban. Air France-KLM received €7 billion in loans and guarantees from the French government, and the Minister said the airline would be required to become “the most environmentally friendly airline on the planet”. However, the overall bail-out package is flawed, and is unlikely to produce the desired, necessary, reductions in Air France’s CO2 emissions. 
https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2020/06/france-to-ban-commercial-flights-on-shortest-domestic-routes/
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