Greenpeace analysis points to finger on political inaction, tax exemption on aviation fuels and International air tickets exempt from VAT. And presents solutions.
Air travel in Europe, the most polluting mode of transportation, are 26 times cheaper than the train, which, according to the International Environmental Association Greenpeace, shows “a failed travel system”At the European level.
This is one of the conclusions of the study of this theme by Greenpeace, in which it says that low cost flights are up to 26 times cheaper than train travel, “feeding climate injustice and exposing the bankrupt travel system in Europe.”
The study, released this Thursday, makes a analysis to 142 routes, in 31 European countrieswhich concludes that flights are predominantly cheaper than train trips in 54% of the 109 transfronist railway routes analyzed, with low -cost airlines to dominate “through unjust prices.”
According to a statement from Greenpeace, this situation “is not due to efficiency [comercial]but political inaction which allows airlines to impair rail transport at the expense of the planet. ”
Greenpeace considers existing in Europe “a tax system that rewards cheap flights that harm the climate.”
The report states that low -cost airlines, as Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling and Easyjet, “dominate European skies”with fares of tickets often lower than airport and ticket rates.
“These prices exist only due to exemption from aviation fuels taxes and because international airline tickets are Isentas of VAT. On the other hand, rail operators often pay VAT in full, [suportam] Increasing energy costs and high railway access rates, ”he says.
Greenpeace found that in 54% of the transionic routes, flying was cheaper in at least six nine days. The tariffs were checked for nine different days for each route, during different reserve periods.
And in Portugal?
In Portugal, only four routes were analyzed, including two domestic. Of the two routes that connect Portugal and Spain, Lisbon-Madrid was considered predominantly cheaper of train than by plane, while the other, Porto-Madrid, It was predominantly more expensive by rail.
In 2023, this route has always been more managing and since then the situation has improved a little, the report stresses.
Barcelona-Londres makes more than 300 euros make it
In turn, Greenpeace finds, trains were always or almost always cheaper in just 29 (39%) of transfronist routes, many of them in central and eastern Europe – especially in the Baltic countries and Poland. In France, Spain and the United Kingdom, the trains were more expensive than the flights in up to 95% of the transionic routes.
Travel trips can cost up to 26 times more than flights – as shown the most extreme example found by Greenpeace: from Barcelona to London costs only 14.99 pounds (about 17 euros) by plane compared to 389 euros of train.
The environmental cost is huge, highlights Greenpeace, explaining that the flights issue an average of five times more CO2 per passenger than the trains. Compared to railroads, which use 100% renewable electricity, the Impact can be 80 times worse. Still, it criticizes that artificially low air tariffs continue to encourage passengers to fly.
Greenpeace admits that they have existed improvements since 2023, the date of the first study, but says that the system still works badly. Thus, Greenpeace states that since 2023, the proportion of routes where trains are predominantly cheaper has increased by 14 percentage points thanks to better rail connections and the reduction of ultrabatas aerubales via hubs such as London or Dublin.
Os night trainswhich offer an ecological alternative for long-range travel, are often more accessible than high-speed, but still cannot compete with highly subsidized air travel, read in the document.
Given this scenario, Greenpeace requires affordable rail transport, ending the illusion of the price of airfare and the EUs and national governments to reform transport policy, eliminating aviation subsidies, introducing a simplified railway ticketing system and investing more in public rail infrastructure.
The organization also defends the introduction of Accessible “climate tickets” – Fixed fare passes valid for national public transportation and transf by.
The study included only routes with distances below 1,500 kilometers, which can be traveled reasonably by both rail and air.
