Germany’s railroad operator DB is now making it possible to book flights on more than 50 airlines to and from anywhere in Germany with a railroad station, as well a a few cities in Austria, Belgium and Netherlands.
The Rail&Fly option, which combines international flight tickets with a rail ticket to or from the airport, is the result of a partnership between DB and World Ticket, a company providing ticket distribution and other software to carriers.
World Travel and DB say the option, which allows tickets to be booked either through the participating airlines or through travel agencies, will help lower demand for shorthaul domestic flights feeding the major international airports such as Frankfurt or Munich. In addition to Germany’s major airports, tickets are also available for Amsterdam, Brussels, Basel, Salzburg and Zurich airports.
Among the participating airlines are Cathay Pacific China Airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa, LATAM, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines.
Flights including the rail link are already showing up in airline searches, such as this example from Lufthansa for flights from New York to Nuremberg. One peculiarity, so far: on other websites, it may be necessary to specify ZAQ (Nuremberg main station) rather then NUE (Nuremberg Airport) to see flights with the train connections.
