European Railroad Discussion > Air France bailout conditional on not competing with TGV

Excerpts from a May 1 news item from International Railway Journal:

One of three conditions imposed on Air France in exchange for a €7bn coronavirus aid package is to stop competing with TGV services where rail offers a viable alternative.
“I want to reiterate that this support for Air France is not a blank cheque,” France’s economy and finance minister, Mr Bruno Le Maire, told the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly on April 29.
The ban on short-haul domestic air travel will apply to routes where trains offer a journey time of 2h 30min or less. This means Air France will no longer be able to sell tickets for domestic travel on flights between Paris and Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes or Rennes. Only passengers using these flights to connect with flights to other destinations will be allowed to travel by air.

It seems the government is using the Air France subsidy as a means to further their policy of cutting AF's CO2 emissions:
“The plane should no longer be a means of transporting [people] in one hour or one hour 15 minutes which could be done at lower cost of CO2 by train in two hours or two hours 30,” Le Marie told BFM TV. “This must be the rule and we will enforce it.”

Makes sense if the government is going to bail them out they can dictate the terms. However the carbon emissions saved over the past two months as well as going forward for probably the rest of the year will more than make up for a few short distance flights taken off on the books. Since the article appears to indicate that short distance flights would still be available for those making connections, it makes zero sense why the airline wouldn't be allowed to  maximize it's passenger load and revenue. An individual person's so called carbon footprint would be reduced but the plane's wouldn't be.  Somewhere AOC and little Greta are happy there are so few planes flying. It's really a dream come true for them. 

I would be surprised if there was much competition on the Paris to Lyon market. There are just so many TGVs operating between Paris and Lyon on a normal day. Charles de Gaul is a rather long RER ride from central Paris. The high speed tram from the Lyon airport to Lyon Part Dieu is kinda pricey at 15.20 € for a little over a half hour ride. It's actually pretty cool to go over 100 kph on a tram though.

Jim