At a time of ecological crisis, private jets remain for many the symbol of social and environmental injustice. It is in this sense that the deputy Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV) Julien Bayou came to Nice on Sunday to defend his bill prohibiting these private flights. The measure is intended to be “less radical than the ban on traffic during periods of pollution”, assured the elected official from this important platform for business aviation.
“Is it radical to force an ultra-rich to fly (commercial) or to take the train, because in fact that’s it, if we ban private jet flights”, wondered Julien Bayou during a conference held in front of the tarmac of Nice airport, second French platform for business aviation behind Paris-Le Bourget.
“A Paris-Nice by plane is the consumption of a car over one year”
“The Paris-Lille, the Paris-London or the Paris-Brussels can very well be done by train, in first class, in a very comfortable way, and failing that by plane”, estimated the deputy for Paris. “A Paris-Nice round trip by plane is the consumption of a car over a year”, pointed out the elected ecologist, who came by train to the Côte d’Azur.
Presented by around twenty deputies including Delphine Batho and Sandrine Rousseau, this bill aimed at “banning private jet flights” to promote ecological transition will be presented on April 6 during the day reserved for environmentalists at the Assembly.
The ban would concern “non-scheduled passenger air transport services that are not commercially operated”, as well as non-scheduled public air transport services “whose number of passengers is less than sixty”.
Private jets are particularly harmful in terms of CO2 emissions, a gas considered to be the primary source of global warming. “In one hour, a single private jet can emit two tonnes of CO2”, underlined in 2021 a report by the NGO Federation Transport & Environment. What push some political leaders to want their ban, in times of climate and energy crisis. Others are less firm, like the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, who suggested in the columns of Le Parisien, “regulation” of these same flights, without specifying the details of such measures.