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SKIING

Covid health pass: Why UK families need to know rules in French ski resorts

Changes to France's Covid rules mean that family skiing holidays could now become very difficult for those travelling from the UK with older children.

Child mounts a ski lift. New Covid rules in France make it complicated to visit the country for a skiing holiday with young children.
New Covid rules in France make it complicated to visit the country for a skiing holiday with young children. (Photo by RAYMOND ROIG / AFP)

France on Thursday announced a raft of changes to its health rules as it battles with a fifth wave of Covid.

You can read the full list of changes HERE but there are two changes that particularly concern family skiing holidays – the health pass is now compulsory in order to use ski lifts, and those who are not fully vaccinated need to take a Covid test every 24 hours in order to use the health pass.

The health pass is required for everyone over the age of 12, and this is a particular problem for UK families, since most UK teenagers have so far only been offered a single dose of the Covid vaccine – not enough for them to count as ‘fully vaccinated’ under French rules.

Children aged between 12 and 18 therefore have the choice of taking a Covid test every 24 hours – at a cost of up to €22 a time for antigen tests – or avoiding using ski lifts while on holiday.

READ ALSO Covid rules in France’s ski resorts this winter

In France, children over the age of 12 are required to have had two shots of AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna, or a single shot of Johnson & Johnson, to be considered fully vaccinated, the same as the rule for adults.

This is less a problem for French over 12s, of whom 73 percent have received both doses and 80 percent a first dose, while the majority of EU countries are also offering two doses. But in the UK the majority of teenagers are only offered a single dose. 

This means that the only other option for children is to present a negative Covid test. But new rules in France mean that a negative result remains valid for only 24 hours – in other words, children without two doses of Covid vaccine who want to ski must get tested every day of the holiday.

Not only is this an uncomfortable procedure but it is also costly. Visitors to France are typically charged visitors are charged up to €22 for an antigen tests or €44 for a PCR test. Either test type works with the health pass.

READ ALSO France sets 7 month limit on Covid health pass and opens up booster jabs to all

It is not just on the slopes that the health pass in being used in French ski resorts. Bars, restaurants, cafés, play centres and even some hotels also require visitors to be fully vaccinated. 

It is also not worth trying to cheat the system. Not only is it illegal, but it also puts others at danger and could land you a hefty fine. Using someone else’s valid health pass can land you with a maximum penalty of €750 for first offence, while using a fake health pass can result in a maximum fine of €75,000 and five years in prison. 

With Covid cases in France rising at “lighting speed”, the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, explained that enforcing the use of the health pass in French ski resorts was an important public health measure. 

“It guarantees the safety of skiers,” he told Le Parisien

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TRAVEL NEWS

Are France’s loss-making regional airports under threat?

Just a quarter of France's airports break even financially with the rest - the smaller, regional airports - heavily subsidised by the state. But can this situation continue?

Are France's loss-making regional airports under threat?

France last year welcomed 199 million airline passengers – bringing the country numbers back to almost pre-pandemic levels. 

But it was only a handful of French airports that took in the vast majority of those millions – with Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports responsible for more than half of the air traffic.

France’s Cour de Comptes counted 73 mainland commercial airports in their 2023 review of the airline sector – but only 15 of those actually break even, the rest rely on subsidies.

Some of these airports are exceedingly small, like Troyes which had just 1,562 passengers in 2023. Others, like Rodez with 31,577 passengers and Castres with 36,454 got a bit more.

Map of airports in France, including both passenger and non-passenger airports (Credit: l’UNION DES AÉROPORTS FRANÇAIS & FRANCOPHONES ASSOCIÉS – UAF & FA)

Limoges was larger, with 264,426 passengers in 2023, but it still paled in comparison to the 10.8 million that passed through the Marseille airport.

The cost of small-to-medium sized airports

The former head of the Air Transport Institute, Jacques Pavaux, authored a 2019 study on public aid to airports, finding that those with less than one million passengers per year are not profitable, noting that only 15 of France’s airports get enough traffic to be profitable.

As for the others, most have been loss-making for years, unable to continue services without significant aid from the state.

“Their chronic deficit has been filled by recurring operating subsidies granted over decades of existence. Almost half of them have never had, and will never have, any chance of reaching the traffic threshold guaranteeing financial balance,” Pavaux wrote. 

The study found that state and local authorities spend around €90 million every year to help keep the small-to-medium sized airports afloat. 

Of the 73 airports listed in the Cour de Comptes report, a little over half (38) counted fewer than 700,000 passengers a year. 

The Cour de Comptes called these “the most economically fragile”, noting that they depend on aid from local authorities to balance operations and carry out the necessary investments.

On top of that, many do not have negotiation options and find themselves competing with neighbouring airports, leaving them forced to take on contracts with low-cost airlines. 

As of 2021, low-cost air traffic represented more than 90 percent of commercial traffic for airports in Dôle, Vatry, Limoges, Bergerac, Nîmes, while it constituted all of the traffic at the Carcassonne, Tours and Béziers airports.

Over-density of airports

Some areas stand out for having a particularly high volume of commercial passenger airports, like Occitanie along the Mediterranean coast in southern France, which is home to nine.

The Cour de Comptes report found that in Occitanie 71.5 percent of regional airport traffic occurred at the Toulouse airport, followed by Montpellier with 14.4 percent.

The other seven – Carcassone, Tarbes, Perpignan, Nîmes, Béziers, Rodez and Castres – combined provided the remaining 14 percent of traffic. 

Valérie Renet, the head of the Occitanie Regional Chamber of Accounts, told France 3 that it is this ‘over-density’ that leads to financial losses, as “operating deficits are covered by public subsidies, that is to say that taxpayers’ money is used to balance the operation of these airports, usually for the benefit of low-cost companies.”

Last year, the airport of Bézers, which is “totally dependent on Ryanair”, received €5.1 million in public money to reach equilibrium, which equates to about €20.69 paid out per passenger, France Bleu reported. 

As for Ryanair, the company benefits from over €30 million in public subsidies – or €16 per passenger – from regional airports in Occitanie alone.

The picture is similar in Brittany, which is home to eight airports, though over 80 percent of traffic is concentrated in Brest, which has a little over one million passengers a year (as of 2018).

The future for small-to-medium sized airports

Building new airports has already become controversial – a proposal for a new airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes near the city of Nantes was the subject of huge protests for years until in 2018 the project was officially abandoned.

But that doesn’t mean that the loss-making existing airports are under threat. 

In terms of what to do with the loss-making airports, Renet focused on the situation in Occitanie. She told France 3 that she was “not advocating for getting rid of the airports. They serve other needs specific to the region, not just commercial flights.”

For example, the Nîmes airport is a national hub for air rescue and civil protection operations, meanwhile ‘pelicandromes’ which are used to fight forest fires, are installed at the Béziers, Carcassone and Perpignan airports. 

Instead, Renet and the Cours de Comptes advocated for streamlining the management of airports to a regional, rather than local level. This would help to avoid overlapping flights – like a Pau-Paris and a Tarbes-Paris that take off around the same time.

The situation may also change in 2027, when the European Commission is due to examine public aid given to airports and whether large subsidies given to airports constitutes unfair competition.

There are also climate concerns, as France moves to invest more train transport to reduce carbon emissions. In 2021, the country passed a law banning domestic air links of less than two hours and 30 minutes when an alternative train option exists.

However, this law has so far only banned three routes: Orly-Bordeaux, Orly-Lyon, and Orly-Nantes.

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