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France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

reuters.com

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Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#131

Post by buboard »

benj111 wrote: post #128
buboard wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigrants cant train to algeria

I don't think that invalidates the idea. I can't fly everywhere , I still have to do the last mile some other way. In the sane way I don't expect the train to pick me up out side my house. Further I don't expect to go to my local airport and expect to be able to travel to any other airport direct, so why should the same apply to train travel?

Because a lot of immigrants use air travel and they don't really have an alternative. A 2-day adventure involving trains, cars, ferries,hotels is much more environmentally (and physically) costly than a $300 flight.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#132

Post by phy6 »

theDevill wrote: post #56

Why are Americans so obsessed with religion, devil and sins?! Taxes exist to capture money and finance the externalities that are ignored by corporations. If corporations were more responsible countries would not have to tax these issues. In this case France is using the money to improve an already pretty good rail system. Compare this to the US and the California train line?

Username checks out. A return to the etymology of the word might be a refreshing point of view: sin -- as in missing the mark, being in societal, cultural or moral error, or being less than you could be in terms of virtue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#133

Post by nine_k »

buboard wrote: post #103
nine_k wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specifically in France the train has a near-zero carbon footprint, because it's electric, and the electricity comes from nuclear power.

Well looks like we need nuclear planes

We don't have nuclear trains, do we? We just replaced coal-fired electric generation with nuclear (in some places at least).

Same with planes. Use energy produced by nuclear / solar / wind plants to synthesize jet fuel, operate the planes as normal.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#134

Post by benj111 »

luckylion wrote: post #124
rjsw wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France and Algeria are not connected by land.

They are, it's just a long journey.

Theres the Suez canal.

So it depends how you want to define 'connected', theres a continuous body of water (with locks (edit: No locks) ), but, I assume, bridges going over that water.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#136

Post by kaycebasques »

keiferski wrote: post #48

I am actually surprised that short-distance flights aren't taxed more in Western Europe. The train infrastructure in France is world class and can get you from Paris (North-Central part of the country) to Marseille (Southeast), a distance of about 500 miles, in 3 hours. For Americans, this would be roughly equivalent to go from Boston to Washington D.C. (a trip that takes 7-10+ hours)

Is the carbon footprint for train travel significantly lower than for plane travel?

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#137

Post by gns24 »

isolli wrote: post #60
mgbmtl wrote: post #37

They say it will "help support the environment", which could mean through funding of greener initiatives, R&D or level the playing field (although the tax is really low/symbolic, in my opinion). It makes sense to tax flights in order to subsidize rail for short-distance trips. I would have expected a higher tax on flights outside the EU, so that people change their habits (although then you need a carbon-tax sort of…

Related: I was surprised to learn recently that short-distance trips by plane actually have lower CO2-emissions than long-distance ones, because the plane does not need to carry so much fuel just for later use.

People with also tell you that take-off burns most of the fuel. I think I read that the sweet-spot in terms of miles per unit fuel is about four hours. (Freight seems to go in roughly four-hour hops, I believe partly for that reason).

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#138

Post by C1sc0cat »

seszett wrote: post #80
C1sc0cat wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the powerful french farming lobby had more to do with it

It's the first time I hear that, and that would be quite surprising since farmers do not pay taxes on the diesel they use.

Precisely at some point (duty free fuel for farming) that has to go and it was a pre-emptive flexing of the faming lobby's muscles.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#139

Post by boudin »

samsonradu wrote: post #117
baud147258 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The train infrastructure is not perfect, the biggest issue being travels not going to/from Paris: the lines aren't as good and there aren't a lot of high-speed lines.

And they’re expensive compared to flying the equivalent route/distance.

It depends, when you buy the tickets 3 month in advance, it can be really competitive. On short-notice trips, it's often too expensive indeed.

Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall

#140

Post by ravedave5 »

keiferski wrote: post #48

I am actually surprised that short-distance flights aren't taxed more in Western Europe. The train infrastructure in France is world class and can get you from Paris (North-Central part of the country) to Marseille (Southeast), a distance of about 500 miles, in 3 hours. For Americans, this would be roughly equivalent to go from Boston to Washington D.C. (a trip that takes 7-10+ hours)

Because of said train infrastructure I'm flying into paris, touring Europe (on trains) then flying out from berlin. Unless they can get the whole EU to agree to it it's probably going to have that affect.
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