AIRail

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AirRail-Ticket Frankfurt-Köln Hbf (FRA-QKL) with pincer imprint, 2008

AIRail (a trunk word from air and rail ), later also Lufthansa Express Rail , is an intermodal transport service that was developed in cooperation between Lufthansa , Deutsche Bahn and Fraport . AIRail connects the main train stations of Aachen , Basel , Dortmund , Erfurt , Hanover , Leipzig , Göttingen , Cologne , Stuttgart , Karlsruhe , Mannheim , Nuremberg , Würzburg and Düsseldorf , the train station Siegburg / Bonn and the train station Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe with the airport Frankfurt as feeder -Alternative to the airplane .

Between Frankfurt Airport and Cologne, 15 daily connections in both directions are classified as AIRail trains, between Frankfurt Airport and Stuttgart seven daily connections are classified as this. In 2005 a total of almost 170,000 passengers used the AIRail service. With the timetable change in December 2007, the offer was expanded to include an early train from Cologne (from 5:54 a.m.) to Frankfurt Airport. In 2015 around 300,000 passengers took advantage of the offer.

The main feature of AIRail is integrated ticketing. AIRail trains have a Lufthansa flight number and can therefore be booked in the booking systems like flights. An AIRail train attendant is available to passengers on the trains; certain seats are primarily intended for Lufthansa guests.

history

prehistory

On May 31, 1992, the then Federal Railroad , Lufthansa and Frankfurt Airport presented a forerunner AIRail with the DB-Lufthansa-Airport-Service . The pilot test enabled travelers from the train stations in Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz, Nuremberg, Würzburg and Aschaffenburg to Frankfurt to check in their luggage at the train station and to buy their boarding pass. In the first seven months, around 7,500 travelers with around 9,000 pieces of luggage took advantage of the offer. The offer was later discontinued.

At the beginning of 1998 it was planned to set up a luggage service to and from Frankfurt am Main Airport within a year. 100 former mail cars have been converted for customs-safe luggage transport. The plan was to offer luggage transfers between Frankfurt and 15 to 17 other train stations in the same year.

In the course of a pilot test, from October 1, 1988 (initially until March 31, 1989) Lufthansa flight tickets were recognized in all EC / IC trains between Munich Central Station and Frankfurt Airport.

On July 13, 1998, the then rail boss Johannes Ludewig and the CEO of Lufthansa, Jürgen Weber , signed a letter of intent regarding the gradual relocation of air traffic between Frankfurt am Main, Cologne and Düsseldorf to rail after the new Cologne-Rhine / Main route went into operation . This should save 15,000 to 20,000 flight movements annually.

From mid-June 1998, as part of a pilot project, Lufthansa air travelers who took the train to Frankfurt from Saarbrücken Central Station had the option of checking in their luggage from the station of departure.

In autumn 1999, a further possibility to take luggage with you was announced: From November 2000 Lufthansa passengers should be able to check in and pick up their luggage on six pairs of ICE trains between Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. The luggage should be transported on the same train as the passengers. If the offer would meet with sufficient interest, Lufthansa air traffic between Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart should be gradually discontinued. A similar project was also planned for 2002 between Frankfurt Airport and Cologne and Düsseldorf.

On September 1, 2000, the Moonlight Check-in project initiated by Lufthansa and DB in 1998 was discontinued. The offer of being able to hand in luggage from Düsseldorf, Bonn, Cologne, Nuremberg and Würzburg to the train station on the eve of the journey for Frankfurt Airport was taken up by 4,500 travelers in 1999. A joint project between Frankfurt and Stuttgart planned for March 2001 was continued.

AIRail

Loading of AIRail luggage in Cologne Hbf (discontinued in November 2007)

As early as 1998, Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa signed a letter of intent to better split traffic between air and rail.

The system was introduced on March 1, 2001. In six pairs of ICE trains per day, Lufthansa passengers had 46 seats in first class, and luggage was carried separately on the train. Since the IATA issued its 3-letter codes not only at airports , but also to important train stations , ports and bus stations at an early stage , these train journeys could be easily integrated into the existing flight booking systems right from the start. On July 10, the offer should be extended to a seventh pair of trains. Baggage drop-off at Stuttgart Central Station was possible up to 20 minutes before departure. The passengers received their boarding passes at Stuttgart main station ; This is also where the customs control of the luggage took place. On the trains, the luggage was transported in newly created luggage compartments in roll containers. The travel time between Stuttgart and Frankfurt Airport was 73 minutes, the minimum transfer time in Frankfurt 45 minutes. From 1 March 2001 Airrail travelers were 500 Miles & More - Bonus miles will get a Airrail ride first class.

Even before 2001, an offer for passengers called AIRail had been introduced where they could travel to the airport by IC and ICE trains.

2001 it was planned in 2003, after the high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main went into operation, to expand the offer to the route Düsseldorf - Cologne / Bonn - Frankfurt am Main. In 2002, Düsseldorf was still planned as a destination.

Until November 4, 2007, passengers could check in their luggage at the main train stations in Cologne or Stuttgart until the final destination of the journey. Luggage was transported in reserved compartments (a lounge was reserved for luggage on ICE 3 trains ) on the trains. Lockable roll containers were used for transport between the check-in and the platform in Cologne or Stuttgart as well as the platform at Frankfurt Airport long-distance train station and the baggage handling system. Small baggage claim areas and customs stations have been set up in the two main train stations for arriving travelers.

The check-in time has been shortened since November 5, 2007, and flight passengers can now check in no later than 15 minutes before departure. This became possible because the passengers no longer check in their luggage in Cologne, Stuttgart or Siegburg, but take them to the Frankfurt Airport train station themselves, and check in there at a special check-in counter at the transition to the airport, which reduces the times for customs control, Transport to the platform and loading in the exit stations were saved. On the same day, Siegburg / Bonn was integrated into the AIRail system.

On October 26, 2008, at the beginning of the winter flight schedule, the seating areas for AIRail customers were relocated from coaches 26 (2nd class) and 27 (1st class) to coaches 21 of the ICE 3 trains. The ten seats (2nd class) in the lounge are available on AIRail sections exclusively for passengers with business and first-class tickets. For economy class passengers, a varying contingent of seats is offered in the large area of ​​car 21.

In December 2014, the Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe and Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof train stations were also integrated into the AirRail system.

The Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station was withdrawn from the program on December 31, 2015.

Since the timetable change on December 12, 2014 there has also been an AIRail branch in Austria (cooperation between the Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian and ÖBB ).

Since May 2018, the Nuremberg and Würzburg main stations have also been integrated into the AIRail network with up to eight daily connections.

From mid-December 2019, the range of services to and from Frankfurt Airport will be further expanded. From Cologne main station, the offer is to be increased from 77 to 119 connections per week, and to and from Düsseldorf is to be doubled to 105. The offers to and from Aachen, Stuttgart and Ulm are also to be improved.

In July 2020, the train stations in Basel, Hanover and Leipzig were added.

Effects

After the introduction of AIRail, Lufthansa reduced the number of daily flight connections between Cologne and Frankfurt from seven to four. The average aircraft size decreased from about 125 seats to about 75 seats. Lufthansa stopped the remaining flights between Frankfurt and Cologne on October 28, 2007, as the flights were no longer busy due to the short travel time by train. The AIRail connections from Cologne to Frankfurt with a journey time of 57 minutes will in future be free of charge for long-haul passengers.

The number of daily Airrail trains was reduced from 112 to 99 between December 2002 and 2004. In mid-2004, the capacity utilization of the 37 seats reserved for Airrail passengers in 31 daily trains between Cologne and Frankfurt averaged 45 percent. An average occupancy rate of 60 percent was measured between Mannheim and Stuttgart.

In the first ten years of operation, two million passengers took advantage of the offer.

In 2011 around 200,000 travelers (290,000 according to other sources) used the Airrail service. This is the highest number of travelers since the start of operations.

In 2015 around 300,000 customers used the around 25,000 connections on offer.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c When the ICE drives to the plane . In: DB World . No. 5 , 2016, p. 11 .
  2. ↑ Lufthansa is expanding its express rail service around the Nuremberg and Würzburg stations on airportzentrale.de, accessed on August 10, 2018
  3. ↑ AIRail - Travel like flying , accessed on October 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b AIRail replaces all LH flights between Cologne and Frankfurt . In: DB Welt , December 2007 edition, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Annual review 1992: Passenger traffic . In: Deutsche Bahn . No. 1, 1993, pp. 32-40.
  6. ↑ Report air traffic: trend towards rail . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Edition 3, 1998, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 62
  7. ↑ Report Lufthansa flight tickets also at "altitude zero" in the IC . In: Eisenbahn-Kurier , issue 11/1988, p. 45.
  8. ↑ a b Report train to flight . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 9, 1998, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 340
  9. ↑ Flughafen Frankfurt Main AG (Ed.): The new dimension of travel. Facts and background information on the AIRail Terminal at Frankfurt Airport , 20-page brochure, Frankfurt, approx. 1999, p. 11
  10. ↑ Report pilot project DB - Lufthansa . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 11, year 1999, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 450
  11. ↑ News update shortly . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 10/2000, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 428.
  12. ↑ Report long-distance train station Frankfurt / Main airport: Statement by Dr. Ludewig . In: Railway technical review . 48, No. 7/8, 1999, p. 504.
  13. ↑ a b c Announcement DB expands offer for air travelers . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 1/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 2.
  14. ↑ Report train to flight . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 147.
  15. ↑ Message "Miles & More" on the rails . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 2/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 52.
  16. ^ Wilhelm Bender : The connection of the Frankfurt airport to the railway network . In: Railways in the Frankfurt RheinMain region , Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt, 2002, ISBN 3-7771-0304-7 , p. 154
  17. ↑ a b Lufthansa AG: AIRail with shorter check-in times from Cologne and Stuttgart - in future also from Siegburg / Bonn . Press release from October 24, 2007.
  18. ^ Deutsche Bahn AG: Take off by train for flight . Retrieved October 17, 2012
  19. ↑ Bastian Ludwig: ICE has no more time to stop: Sprinter rushes through Kassel . In: Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine online, December 23, 2015.
  20. ↑ http://www.austrian.com/Info/Book/AIRail.aspx?cc=AT
  21. ↑ Lufthansa is expanding its express rail service around the Nuremberg and Würzburg stations on airportzentrale.de, accessed on August 10, 2018
  22. ↑ Lufthansa increases its express rail offer. In: newsroom.lufthansagroup.com. Lufthansa, October 23, 2019, accessed on October 26, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Lufthansa Group | Newsroom: Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa are significantly expanding their cooperation: train to flight is to be expanded. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .
  24. ^ Cologne-Frankfurt: No more Lufthansa flights because of ICE. In: Focus. September 27, 2007, accessed February 28, 2013 .
  25. ↑ ICE connects airports . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . June 17, 2004, ISSN  0940-6980 , p. 46 ( online ).
  26. ↑ a b Ten years of successful AIRail service. (No longer available online.) Deutsche Lufthansa AG, May 15, 2013, archived from the original on October 28, 2014 ; Retrieved May 22, 2013 .
  27. ↑ Lufthansa welcomes 200,000. AIRail passenger ( memento from February 25, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) . dmm.travel , December 30, 2011.