the creation of an airline between Toulouse and Barcelona scandalizes environmental associations

Barcelona (Spain), less than an hour from Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) by plane. This is Vueling’s new offer from July, with a maximum of three flights per week for three months. Some see it as a saving of time and money, others an environmental aberration. If this can scandalize the people of Toulouse, it is because Barcelona acts as a neighbour, 250 kilometers as the crow flies.

A TGV line closed three years ago

“Compared to the train, it’s 100 times more emissions in one trip. This line, it should not be opened, it was necessary to do what was necessary so that the train is an interesting alternative“, maintains Yannick Saleman, project manager “Employment and industrial policy” of the Shift Project. Until the health crisis, the SNCF offered a direct link in partnership with the Spanish Renfe. The journey time was three hours, but it was canceled in 2020 because it was not profitable enough.Today you have to make a change in Narbonne, lengthening the journey by 50 minutes, almost as much as by car.