A pledge by Spanish Prime Minister to ban short domestic flights to fight climate change if he is re-elected has drawn sharp fire from airlines serving Spain, who claim that Spanish rail connections make the plan unworkable.
The proposal is modeled on one enacted in France that bans most short-haul flights when a rail trip would be under 2.5 hours. Similar plans are under discussion or have gone into effect in several other European countries. Proponents say that it would cancel about 35% of flights in Spain and would reduce pollution by 10%.
The airlines, through their association, ALA, say it’s a bad plan for Spain because most of its airports, including the two main international gateways at Madrid and Barcelona, don’t even have stations on the country’s high-speed rail network and rely on local connections. This, they say, would make it difficult for passengers starting in other cities to make connections to long-haul and international flights.
