France has banned short-haul domestic flights to places where alternative means such as trains can be used in a bid to cut carbon emissions.

According to the BBC, the law came into effect two years after lawmakers voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in less than two and a half hours.

The ban excludes all air travel between Paris and cities such as Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux, while connecting flights will not be affected.

However, the critics of this measure characterize these latest measures as “symbolic bans”.

Airlines around the world have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with website Flightradar24 reporting that the number of flights last year fell by almost 42% from 2019.

France’s Citizens’ Convention on Climate, which was created by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 and included 150 members of the public, had proposed scrapping air travel where train travel is possible when journeys are under 4 hours .

But this was reduced to two and a half hours after objections from some regions, as well as the airline Air France-KLM.