The law of unintended consequences seems to impact the airline industry more than most; unilateral action by regulators can ripple through surrounding markets creating confusion for an industry where long-term planning frequently clashes with short-term opportunism.
This week France banned all domestic flights where an alternative train service of under two and a half hours exists. The routes that seem to be under focus are services between Paris and Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux. Critics have described the ban as “symbolic” and a “distraction” to the real issue of not just the value of domestic flying but the slow and steady change to train from plane that is happening throughout mainland Europe.
We’ve crunched some data and here’s what we’ve found…
Domestic Flying Is Falling
We’ve compared the summer schedules across some of Europe’s major markets this year to the 2019 season to identify what is happening.
As the table below highlights the number of domestic…
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