The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has written exclusively to Corporate Jet Investor (CJI) to warn of the likely impact of France’s proposed ban on private jets.

Robert Baltus, chief operations officer, EBAA told CJI that comments made by France’s minister delegate for Transport Clément Beaune were “very unfortunate” and that he was taking the “easiest route by blaming CEOs that are keeping France and the EU afloat”.

A ban or restrictions could be harmful for both the French and wider European economy, according to Baltus. “Bullying the smallest segment of the aviation sector representing 0.04% of the global CO2 emission because it’s an easy target and the crowd demands a sacrifice won’t solve anything,” he said. “On the contrary, it will further deteriorate European economies and the lives of the citizens we serve and employ.”

Baltus added that discriminating against the sector could put at risk the “€87bn of economic output in Europe and around 400,000 highly skilled jobs”.

New technologies and advancements in sustainability from OEMs based in France such as Dassault, Daher and Airbus could also come under threat and instead be moved elsewhere, said Baltus. “These companies are developing the sustainable aviation of tomorrow through all types of technological improvements such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and electric aircraft,” he said. “It is sad that its own Transport minister is now trying to close their industry down and indirectly encouraging them to move to third countries that do support new technologies like China and the US.”

Baltus said that the minister’s statement “undermines all the work that was achieved [through the Toulouse Declaration] …by the French themselves all in the name of ‘green populism’”. He highlighted that the minister should “focus his attention on introducing the Single European Sky initiative” which could reduce all aviation emissions in Europe by 10%. “France has been the member state primarily stalling the introduction of this initiative for nearly 20 years,” he said, adding that “up to 10% of CO2 generated by all flights in Europe over the last 20 years has been wasted fuel” due to not introducing the scheme.

“Just like the airlines, we’ll be carbon neutral in 2050 so there’s no need at all to discriminate against the sector,” Baltus said.

Read the industry’s reaction and Baltus’ full letter to CJI here.