Germany’s Lufthansa wants more of its customers to take the train to the airport, doubtless encouraged by the flight shame movement.
Lufthansa and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB) will significantly expand the express rail options to and from Frankfurt.
The changes take place from mid-December (when rail schedules change) and involve DB services from Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Ulm to Frankfurt airport (which has its own rail station).
It means that while today there are 77 rail links between Cologne and Frankfurt airport, this number will increase to 119 from mid-December.
In the case of Düsseldorf the number will more than double to 105.
The advantage of taking a rail-air link is that, should the train be delayed, Lufthansa will rebook passengers free of charge.
Says Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister, “We are committed to an efficient and sustainable network of the various modes of transport. This doesn’t just benefit our customers. It is good for the environment.”
Lufthansa says the new air-rail services are bookable “immediately.”
It says the above-named cities are in addition to the other air-rail services already offered, and more are planned.
Readers may wonder why these links do not apply to Lufthansa’s Munich hub. The answer is that the rail station at Munich airport is not located on the mainline network.
Today’s development comes soon after it was announced rail fares within Germany may decrease if the VAT rate is lowered, as we reported recently.
We discussed the increasing importance of train connections between airports in our January issue:
