Environmental marketing campaign group Greenpeace has slammed the truth that price range flights between locations in Europe are nonetheless typically considerably cheaper than travelling by prepare.
With wildfires, heatwaves and droughts getting worse in Europe, many individuals wish to make extra climate-friendly selections, together with in relation to journey.
However new analysis by Greenpeace means that clients will not be getting a good deal – as a result of taking the prepare between locations in Europe is commonly far pricier than a price range flight.
In an evaluation of 142 routes throughout 31 European international locations, Greenpeace discovered that flights are cheaper than trains on 54 % of 109 cross-border routes.
The environmental organisation said that low-cost airways had the higher hand because of unfair pricing. They known as out “political inaction that lets airways undercut rail on the planet’s expense”.
Herwig Schuster, transport campaigner for Greenpeace Central and Japanese Europe, stated: “Even because the local weather disaster worsens, Europe’s tax system continues to favour essentially the most polluting option to journey.”
Schuster cited one instance of a flight from Barcelona to London that may price as little as €15, whereas a prepare on the identical route (costing round €389) “is as much as 26 occasions costlier”.
He added: “Aviation enjoys unfair tax privileges, whereas prepare passengers are left to pay the worth. These costs don’t replicate a functioning market – they replicate a rigged system.”
Passengers should buy low-cost tickets from low-cost airways reminiscent of Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling and EasyJet.
Campaigners say the costs are so low due to elements like untaxed aviation fuels and worldwide flight tickets being exempt from VAT.
“In the meantime, rail operators typically pay full VAT, rising vitality prices and excessive monitor entry fees,” stated Greenpeace.
The research didn’t, nonetheless, carry within the added hidden prices that usually come up with air journey reminiscent of baggage and check-in charges or journey to the airport.
A Ryanair worker talks to a passenger on the check-in counters on the Terminal 2 of El Prat airport in Barcelona. Photograph: Pau BARRENA/AFP.
Low airfares ‘push travellers in the direction of flying’
The Greenpeace research discovered that in simply over half of the cross-border routes analysed, flying was cheaper on no less than six out of 9 days. Fares had been checked for 9 completely different days for every route and throughout completely different time reserving intervals.
The research discovered that trains had been at all times or virtually at all times cheaper on 29 (39 %) cross-border routes, a lot of them in Central and Japanese Europe, significantly the Baltics and Poland. In France, Spain and the UK, trains had been costlier than flights on as much as 95 % of cross-border routes.
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The organisation identified the environmental affect, with flights emitting “5 occasions extra CO2 per passenger kilometre than trains on common”.
“In comparison with railways utilizing 100% renewable electrical energy, their affect will be over 80 occasions worse,” stated Greenpeace, including that “artificially low airfares hold pushing travellers towards flying”.
Nonetheless, there have been some enhancements.
The evaluation stated that since 2023, the share of routes the place trains are cheaper has risen by 14 proportion factors. The push to introduce extra evening trains in Europe was additionally cited as a optimistic growth.
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And in some international locations – reminiscent of Germany – climate-friendly insurance policies do appear to be having an affect.
Greenpeace campaigner Herwig Schuster instructed German media outlet Tagesschau: “Inside Germany, touring by prepare is sort of at all times cheaper than flying.”
Low-cost airways have additionally complained concerning the rising price of airport charges in international locations throughout Europe. Ryanair has cancelled routes and closed bases in numerous countries to protest towards the rising charges.
In 2024 Ryanair and EasyJet recommended that fees and operating costs at German airports were too high.
“Berlin is among the many costliest airports we function from,” a spokesperson from EasyJet instructed The Native, including, “Airport prices characterize about 20 % of EasyJet’s working prices and are the second largest price after gasoline.”
Greenpeace is urging EU and nationwide governments to take motion and make travelling by prepare throughout Europe simpler and extra inexpensive.
“Each route the place a aircraft is cheaper than a prepare is a political failure,” stated Schuster. “We will’t hold rewarding essentially the most polluting type of transport. Europe should make trains the most cost effective and best possibility – not the final resort.”
