Proposals to ban ultra-cheap airline tickets may be symbolic, but it would definitely affect air travel in the Baltics, where budget airlines take up a particularly big share of the market. Less polluting modes of public transport, such as rail, are also relatively underdeveloped.
Ten-euro plane tickets are simply no longer feasible, says the French transport minister. Clément Beaune has proposed banning unreasonably cheap flights across the EU as a climate change measure.
He is not the first one to come up with the idea: Austria has previously considered banning flight tickets cheaper than 40 euros, while the Netherlands targeted those below 35.
Experts say that excessive flying – often encouraged by below-cost fares – is really bad for the environment and prevents people from considering alternatives, such as trains. But even climate activists question whether the move to regulate prices is the right one.
So far, the French transport minister’s proposal is in its early stages, with the idea coming to light in several interviews and at an informal meeting of European Union transport ministers in August. However, if a floor on air fares were to be introduced, Lithuania and the Baltic states would undoubtedly be affected.
What do the French propose?
The French transport minister is proposing to set a floor for how cheaply airlines could sell tickets. According to Beaune, cheap flights “do not reflect the price paid by the planet”. Moreover, he said, the cost of cheap tickets is usually born by airlines’ workers.
The minister does not say what the minimum price should be but suggests that the idea could be discussed at the EU level. At least several countries have received the idea quite positively.
Although the main reason for the proposal, according to Beaune, is the desire to help nature, there could be other reasons, says Wouter Dewulf, professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
“It would protect the national airlines, which never sell tickets for 10, 20 or 30 euros, but compete [with low-fare airlines]. France is always keen to protect its industry, so there is certainly an element of protectionism in this proposal,” Dewulf tells LRT.
Symbolic measure
However, according to the professor, the measure would be largely symbolic. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Europe’s largest low-cost airline Ryanair, has previously said that the average fare in 2021 was 40 euros and will rise to 50 euros in the next five years.
“This is a symbolic measure because most flights are much more expensive than 30 or 40 euros. This would have a major impact on Ryanair passengers who buy tickets for less, but they usually only have 10 or 20 seats on board,” says Dewulf.
Three low-cost airlines – Ryanair, Wizz Air and Norwegian Air Shuttle – operate flights from Lithuanian airports. The first two have the lion’s share of the Lithuanian market: Ryanair 47 percent, Wizz Air 15 percent.
This means that more than 6 out of 10 passengers fly through Lithuanian airports on low-cost airlines. Presumably, if a fare floor is ever introduced, it is likely to have a noticeable impact on air travel in Lithuania.
Alternatives
Climate activists welcome any attempts to limit unnecessary air travel, but do not believe that price floors are the most appropriate measure.
“Flights are cheap because airlines and airports receive public support, subsidies, fuel and overhead tax breaks. So what we would like to see is not price regulation, but tackling the reasons why flying is cheaper than climate-friendly transport, especially trains,” Thomas Gelin, a transport activist with the international environmental organisation Greenpeace, tells LRT.
So, he says, it would be better to stop supporting airlines and airports. The organisation estimates that EU countries could raise tens of billions of euros by doing so. This money could then be spent on railways.
“Our main objective is to make train travel cheaper than air travel. This requires investment in rail infrastructure. In recent decades, railways have been closing down, while on the contrary, more are needed,” says Gelin.
Bad situation in the Baltics
The problem is that travelling by train is now often much more expensive than by plane, even for relatively short distances. For example, flying from Brussels to London is often several times cheaper than travelling by train. Two capitals are connected by high-speed rail and the trip only takes two hours.
Greenpeace calls the situation in the Baltic states particularly bad: while train tickets are cheap, train journeys are either very long, uncomfortable or altogether impossible.
“Crossing the Latvian-Lithuanian border by train is impossible. There is also no direct train from Estonia to Latvia, only one train a day with a change at the border. There is a daily train from Vilnius to Warsaw and Krakow, but it leaves Poland early in the morning and returns late in the evening,” the organisation’s analysis said.
