European aviation officials, including the head of KLM and the CEO of Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, are urging passengers to consider the train instead.
Not that they don't want to do business, but they point out that for short-haul flights, the train may be faster overall, and certainly greener, especially for distances under 500 km. But often, the train may actually cost more, especially on some high-volume routes such as London-Paris and Amsterdam-London.
That's in part because of big subsidies enjoyed by the aviation industry, and a recent period of low fuel costs. Some political scientists and transport executives have suggested some of the subsidy should be shifted from air to rail, especially where it could effect a big difference.
And as for KLM and Schiphol, they have another issue as well. Schiphol is jammed to the gills, and is living with a limit of 500,000 flight movements a year at least until 2020; last year it hit the cap. That means that room for growth in long-distance flights depends on either an alternate airport (now snarled in controversy) or getting short-distance flight numbers down.
Photo: Qualle/Wikimedia
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