Many readers will be surprised at reading this news. After all Star Alliance is an airline grouping so why accept a rail operator for membership?
It’s simply because airlines have to demonstrate “sustainability” in this environmentally conscious age.
So with rail-air links now in fashion, what better way then to encourage customers to take the train to the airport.
Germany’s Aero.de reports that an official announcement will be made this coming Monday.
This news ought not to come as a surprise. Flightglobal.com was reporting on the possibility of closer links between alliances, airlines and national rail operators back in 2019.
As we have reported previously, Germany boasts more rail-air links than any other. In fact it’s been mooted that domestic flights be axed altogether (although this is unlikely to happen because Lufthansa’s second hub at Munich is not connected to the mainline network).
As noted above we must wait until July 4 for the full details of this development but, at the very least, there would surely be perks for those taking Deutsche Bahn (DB) to the airport.
The ramifications are significant for European aviation. After all Swiss and Austrian Airlines are Star members with hubs directly linked to mainline rail. Both are already rail-air converts.
So in the future will we see OEBB (Austria) and SBB (Switzerland) linking to Star?
And what about SNCF (France)? It is already a major provider of rail-air to Paris CDG and Orly.
SNCF is the major shareholder in Thalys and Eurostar and both operators serve Amsterdam Schiphol which is an Air France/KLM hub along with Skyteam.
