The Air-Rail market is an important part of the multi-modal travel mix, as we continue to seek to reduce emissions – and yes, in some cases, reduce unrequired flying. Lufthansa has announced a tie-up with KORAIL– the national operator of South Korea.
Lufthansa Group has partnered with KORAIL, the primary train operator in South Korea, to offer its passengers the flexibility of air-to-rail options when travelling within South Korea. The move will mark the first time that Lufthansa has announced an Air-Rail service tie-up outside Europe.
With this partnership, Lufthansa passengers will now be able to travel to as well as from Seoul-Incheon International Airport (ICN) to 8 KTX destinations nationwide. These are:
- Busan
- Dongdaegu
- Gwangju
- Ulsan
- Pohang
- Yeosu
- Mokpo
- Jinju
These will be issued on one ticket, offering passengers seamlessness travel links.
In Quotes
According to Roy Lease, Vice President, Head of Partnership Management at Lufthansa Group:
“Extending our intermodal offers to regions outside of the Lufthansa Group hubs is part of our multimodal strategy. By offering connecting services with the Korean Railway company KORAIL, we are happy to integrate 8 Korean cities into the Lufthansa Group network.”
Booking and integration
If you’re seeking to book tickets with Air-Rail links in South Korea, this is now live on the Lufthansa site. In this quick look, I’ve popped in London Heathrow to Ulsan:
As you can seem both the airport and train station have been listed. Diving into an itinerary, there’s a better breakdown:
The Air-Rail services will also be offered by travel agents with integration with Global Distribution services.
Building out connectivity, whilst taking the train
Multi-modal travel is an important part of the travel mix – it is rare that you exit the airport and that is your destination – there is always a need to travel onwards – be it with another flight, a train journey, a bus or even grabbing a hire car or taxi.
As the aviation industry realises that domestic flying sometimes isn’t the best way to be environmentally conscious – especially over shorter distances – having options such as Air-Rail links becomes more important.
Especially beyond Europe, in countries where there are adequate and managed rail services that can tie up with airline reservation systems, allowing a passenger to travel from A to B on a single ticket.
Whilst a partnership like this isn’t the most glamorous offering, it presents an opportunity for ease of movement – something that would have a real-world impact on passengers.
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