French Transport Minister Clément Beaune wants “the establishment of a minimum plane ticket price” in Europe in order to “fight against social and environmental dumping”, he explains in an interview with L’Obs on Wednesday . This “proposal” will be submitted to his European Union counterparts “in the days to come,” he announced. “Plane tickets for 10 euros, at a time of ecological transition, are no longer possible! This does not reflect the price for the planet,” he said, in an allusion to certain pricing policies of low-cost airlines.
These call prices do not cover the real cost per passenger of air travel, which emits far more greenhouse gases than the train. “I fully assume the taxation of polluting activities to invest in this ecological transition”, he justifies, while the government already intends to increase the so-called “solidarity” tax applying to all flights departing from France. in order to finance investments in railways. Additional taxes on highway companies and airline tickets are expected to feature in France’s 2024 budget.