The Government pact between the PSOE and Sumar includes a point that will restrict the air bridge between Barcelona and Madrid, with Iberia as the main airline affected. The text indicates that, as "other countries around us" have done, "the reduction of domestic flights will be promoted on those routes where there is a rail alternative with a duration of less than 2 and a half hours." The measure would have an exception, cases of connection with hub airports that link with international routes. "This should lead to the reduction of airlift flights that clearly have an alternative by train," says Sumar spokesperson Ernest Urtasun.
According to this interpretation, a passenger who must travel between Barcelona and Madrid to connect with another international flight could make this journey by plane. On the other hand, if the final destination is Barcelona or Madrid, no, because high speed, with up to four different operators, offers the possibility of traveling between the two cities by rail.
The routes potentially affected, in addition to Barcelona-Madrid, would be Madrid-Alicante, Madrid-Valencia, Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Málaga. Recently, France applied a similar measure, with the suppression of internal flights with an alternative by train in less than two and a half hours. The objective, according to the French government, is to reduce polluting emissions and promote transportation methods that are less harmful to the environment.
The Ministry of Transport, in the hands of the Socialists, has indicated that from now on the impact of the measure will be analyzed "in the terms reached in the text" of the Government pact. To do this, they continue, a technical study will be carried out that synthesizes the impact of the measure "from a broad perspective" without being able to advance, they say, more details in this regard.
This initiative, whose effects seem to be calibrated differently by the PSOE and Sumar, has caused the immediate reaction of the airline sector in Spain. The president of the ALA airline association, Javier Gándara, recalled that in recent years there has already been a natural transfer of passengers from plane to train. The market share of the latter exceeds 80% - on the Madrid-Valencia route it reaches 90%. "These passengers who decide to fly these routes are essentially connecting travelers," he says. "In the case of prohibiting these flights without offering an intermodal solution -Gándara continues-, it is most likely that these passengers will continue flying to other European hubs."
Therefore, according to ALA, the measure would have "limited" effectiveness in terms of decarbonization, "around 1% reduction in emissions in Spain." In this sense, ALA has asked for "an intermodal solution" that brings the high-speed train to the main airports and thus "not lose competitiveness."
