About time. Traveling is killing the planet. One of major causes of climate change. We need to take it seriously. I'm glad France is willing to take a bold and brave step to support the environment.
[Citation Needed]
France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
141–150 of 578 posts
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#142So, this will mostly affect CDG as a hub. IF that tax gets painful, people will move to LHR or FRA.
LHR can’t get any busier without a third runway, which is increasingly unlikely to be built.
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#143Earlier 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 might be less than ten years away from commercial passenger electric planes. https://www.reuters.com/article/easyjet-ceo-electric-idUSL8N...
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
But close to nothing is being recovered. We would recover more or less the same if we introduced a tax on bad weather to be paid by those suffering from it. The money collected with this tax may or may not reduce air travel and will be spent on government employees, welfare distributions, healthcare, roads, military etc as all other taxes and only a fraction will be spent on improving the environment.
They could destroy the money collected from the tax and it would still improve the environment: the tax will discourage people from flying and encourage people to use alternatives, which helps the environment.
As I write this, I imagine people are rushing to their phones to cancel their transatlantic business class tickets because of the 18 euro surcharge.
I’ll be traveling via barge for the foreseeable future because of this tax.
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#145About time. Traveling is killing the planet. One of major causes of climate change. We need to take it seriously. I'm glad France is willing to take a bold and brave step to support the environment.
[Citation Needed]
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#146I 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
#147I 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)
> For Americans, this would be roughly equivalent to go from Boston to Washington D.C. (a trip that takes 7-10+ hours)
Half of which is stops...
I would love Amtrak to start a service that is just BOSNYCWAS.
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#148I 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?
About 5-10% of a flight, according to this:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/trains-vs-planes-...
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's no alternative to burning fuel by energy density on an airline, so why go after flights? It is still very early but there are projects working on electric flight.
I don't believe there is technology even on the horizon which would make this remotely feasible. The best of electric aircraft at the moment can fly for 90 minutes carrying two people; allegedly aimed at the flight training market. Except that gives it about enough endurance for a single lesson and it'd then need to be recharged for 3-4 hours before it could fly again. Compare this to a Rotax powered trainer which bu…
You are correct. There are people working on this, but the best estimates I've seen are that hybrid-electric airliners are ~30-40 years from commercialization and fully electric simply isn't feasible without a fundamental breakthrough in the battery energy-density space.
Re: France to tax flights from its airports, airline shares fall
#150I 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?
I guess it depend if the train is running on electricity or diesel, but in France I had read an article in a french newspaper stating that the carbon footprint of train was 10% of the one from planes.
This article seems to have the same numbers: https://www.seat61.com/CO2flights.htm