Synergies between air and rail have been on the increase in recent months. While Deutsche Bahn has recently entered the the oneworld airline allianceIn July, Rome Fiumicino airport signed a partnership agreement with FS Italiane to deploy Trenitalia services from the hub to Naples and Florence. These routes were designed to enable passengers to be " in New York in the early afternoon, leaving early in the morning from Naples or Florence".said those in charge of the Roman hub at the time.
This development is part of the an expanded Air+Rail programme recently introduced by Delta Air Lines. Since August 2021, the American airline has already been offering its passengers Thalys connections between Amsterdam Schiphol and the Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp. This initial launch has now been supplemented by rail connections to 20 additional destinations. And this, from Brussels, Manchester and Zurich airports and Rome Fiumicino. In partnership with Trenitalia, the company's passengers can now reach four Italian cities, including Bologna and Florence.
A single ticket booked with Delta, end-to-end connectivity guaranteed even in the event of disruptions, continuous travel standards between the business cabin on the plane and first class on the train: this service is also offered from Brussels Airport to Breda and Rotterdam in the Netherlands with the Belgian company SCNB. For its part, the operator TransPennine Express transports Delta passengers to/from seven UK towns from Manchester airport. Finally, in Switzerland, seven cities, including Berne, Geneva and Lausanne, are accessible by rail from Zurich airport with CFF trains. Connectivity that Delta will also be offering at Geneva in April 2023, when it will begin direct flights to the Swiss metropolis.
" The integration of additional Air+Rail routes into our programme offers our customers a greater choice of destinations, including a number of cities not currently served by Delta or our European partners such as Bern, Rotterdam and York" said Alain Bellemare, President of Delta International.
