Air travel can be a great enabler, covering distances quickly. But journeys never begin and end at the airport – there’s normally travel to and from the airport. Typically, the point of switching modes (or intermodal travel)
ITA Airways is offering a new product to help passengers – and not just in Italy.
The new intermodality project is sponsored jointly by Aeroporti di Roma, ITA Airways and Trenitalia, a week after the product presentation event last 27 April.
Passengers arriving at Rome Fiumicino airport by train with Trenitalia and holding an onward ITA Airways ticket to any domestic or international destination (excluding only the USA and Israel) may check in and drop off their luggage directly at the station, at the dedicated FCO Connect desks serviced by Swissport.
In addition, ITA Airways offers combined tickets for purchase by passengers abroad travelling by train in Spain, Belgium and parts of the United Kingdom for intermodal transport. These include:
- Spain: Renfe via Madrid and Barcelona
- Switzerland: SBB Swiss Railways via Zurich and Geneva
- Belgium/Netherlands: SNCB via Amsterdam and Brussels
- United Kingdom: London North Eastern Railway (LNER), Great Western Railway, Avanti West Coast and National Express (Coach Services )
Combined train-plane tickets can be purchased on all ITA Airways’ digital channels, at partner travel agents or ITA Airways ticket offices, or through the ITA Airways Contact Centre.
Dear Airlines. More of this, please
We all know that the aircraft and airport are only part of the journey- as I explained above. We travel from mode to mode, in both short and long-haul travel, be it driving, walking, a taxi, a train, a local transit service, busses, a bike or an electric scooter.
The trick is integrating this all together – and it can be hard knitting connections up – especially when they’re offered by different providers.
It seems that ITA Airways’ partnership with Accessrail is key to opening up this intermodal model.
And it’s something I would love to see a lot more of, as we seek to move off air routes for short-distance services that are well served by rail.
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