Spain says adios to short-haul flights

The formation of a new coalition government in Spain portends big changes for the country’s short-haul flights.

The Socialist Workers’ Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has signed a coalition deal with the far-left Sumar party that includes some 230 policy promises covering the next four years — including a pledge to limit short flights within the country.

The idea is similar to a program in France, and would scrap domestic flights where there is a rail alternative that takes less than two-and-a-half hours.

“The train will be the means of transport of the 21st century,” said Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz, insisting that short-haul flights “must end.”

But the plan — like its French predecessor — is riddled with loopholes, and activists fear it won’t do much to limit flights.

The target is flights from cities like Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Seville to Madrid, routes currently operated by Iberia, Vueling and Air Europa. For other domestic routes, such as Barcelona-Seville, the rail trip takes more than five hours, meaning they won’t be affected.

The measure is intended to end short-hop city-to-city flights, but Javier Gándara, president of the Spanish airline association ALA, said in a statement that “in recent years, passengers have already shifted from planes to trains,” bumping rail’s share of domestic routes to over 80 percent, and in some cases — such as the Madrid-Valencia route — to more than 90 percent.

He added that most people taking the plane from secondary cities to Madrid are using the capital’s Barajas International Airport as a hub to fly on to more distant destinations — and those types of flights wouldn’t be curbed under the new measure.

Because most airports are not directly on the national high-speed rail grid, moving them to rail is impractical, he said. Traveling from Valencia to an international destination served from the Spanish capital, for example, means first going to Madrid’s central train station and then taking a regional train, the subway or a taxi to Barajas.

The airport is due to be connected to the high-speed rail network by 2026.

French flop

NGOs and campaigners are worried that the Spanish effort will be as ineffectual to France’s push to curb greenhouse gas emissions from short-haul flights.

The French measure was approved last year, but only affects three routes: flights between Paris-Orly Airport and Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon. The European Commission said that such regulations can only take effect if there are genuine rail alternatives available for the same route — meaning several direct connections each way daily.

Ecologistas en Acción, a grassroots coalition of 300 Spanish environmental NGOs, praised the general idea as “a star measure” of the green movement. But, given that the ban would not apply to connecting flights to hub airports, it called the plan “purely symbolic.” Airlines came to a similar conclusion.

Air travel is responsible for about 2.5 percent of global CO2 emissions — the sector’s overall contribution to climate change is even higher thanks to non-CO2 impacts — making it a key target for climate campaigners.

“If there’s an opportunity to establish high-quality rail lines covering these destinations, it’s a commendable initiative,” said Jaime Peraire, professor of aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “When examining emissions on a per-mile basis, trains emerge as the most efficient mode of transport, followed by planes, and then cars.”

He said that the emissions difference between trains and airplanes is around 30 percent.

Iberia is resisting the idea. In a report published earlier this year, it said that domestic flights are responsible for less than 1 percent of Spain’s CO2 emissions, and that flights from the Spanish capital to other big cities contributed €329 million to the country’s GDP last year.

Replacing short flights with trains would require between eight and 10 high-speed trains an hour from Barajas.

“Until there is a true intermodal system that allows an efficient connection of the airports with high speed railways, it is impossible to replace short-haul flights with rail travel,” said Beatriz Guillén, the carrier’s director of global sales, in a statement.

Renfe, the Spanish rail operator, said it is ready in case the measure creates additional demand for train travel, adding it “has sufficient high-speed train capacity to cover the routes” linking Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Seville with Madrid.

Renfe added that new passenger trains entering service in the coming months will increase transport capacity.

The coalition parties have until November 27 to form a government.