The French government originally proposed a ban on short domestic flights where direct train services of less than 4 hours were available.
The French parliament has now approved the measure, but watered down to train times of less than 2.5 hours, meaning that many medium-distance flights will continue.
It largely affects flights to Paris Orly airport, which mostly hosts domestic flights.
Flights continue to CDG airport to provide long-haul connections.
The 4-hour limit would have banned many flights between Paris and places like Toulouse, Marseille, Montpellier and Basel.
The 2.5 hour limit will cover as far as Bordeaux, Lyon, Besancon, Strasbourg and Nantes, and maybe as far as Valence.
Cross-border services (eg Paris-Brussels/London) are not affected, as it would be against EU competition rules.
Although the greens/left were annoyed at the reduced limit, there were concerns that SNCF would use the lack of competition to reduce services and hike fares.
The measure affects all domestic flights, many of which are operated by LCCs like easyJet and Ryanair (who objected to any limit).
More details here:
France to ban some domestic flights where train available | Air France/KLM | The Guardian
A year ago, the French government agreed a €7bn loan for AF-KLM on the condition that certain internal flights were dropped, but the decree will also stop low-cost airlines from operating the banned domestic routes.
The chief executive of Air France-KLM, Benjamin Smith, has said the airline is committed to reducing the number of its French domestic routes by 40% by the end of this year.
The transport minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, told MPs: “We have chosen two and a half hours because four hours risks isolating landlocked territories including the greater Massif Central, which would be iniquitous.”
PS Sorry, took too long to assemble this piece and was beaten to it!