Frankfurt / Main (dpa) – In view of growing criticism of environmentally harmful domestic flights, Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn are improving their cooperation. With the timetable change in December, faster ICE direct connections will connect Frankfurt Airport even better, as the two companies reported on Monday. In addition, five more cities are to be integrated into the existing joint Lufthansa Express Rail service. However, Lufthansa is not canceling any domestic routes for the time being. There are also no signs of a solution for the Munich hub, which is not connected to the DB long-distance network.
If the railroad offers good offers, flight connections could be omitted, said Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister. You have seen that in the past near Cologne, Dortmund or Paderborn. Basically, however, it is a matter of optimizing both transport offers. Hohmeister said: “Both flights and trains can co-exist. But then of course there will be fewer flights – smaller planes, fewer frequencies, that will affect some destinations in Germany.”
In the past, Lufthansa has defended ultra-short flights such as Nuremberg-Munich or Nuremberg-Frankfurt with the argument that passengers cannot be expected to take long train travel times and that they do not want to lose them to other hubs and thus to other airlines. After all, passengers who want to cover the entire journey by plane can always fly via foreign hubs such as Paris, Amsterdam or Istanbul. Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr had pointed out last week in the balance sheet presentation that the French ban on domestic flights always excludes transfer traffic.
The environmental association BUND welcomed the closer cooperation between the two modes of transport. “The raising of existing potential to avoid short-haul flights is overdue. Now targeted investments must be made in the elimination of bottlenecks, the expansion of railway junctions, the construction of passing tracks and the connection of Munich Airport”, demanded BUND mobility expert Jens Hilgenberg. Short-haul flights, including feeders, would have to be completely shifted to rail by 2030. According to Berthold Huber, board member of Deutsche Bahn, the connection to Munich is not even included in the federal transport route plan.
In the expanded cooperation, five cities will be included in the existing “Lufthansa Express Rail” system. According to the announcement, these are Hamburg and Munich from July and Berlin, Bremen and Münster from December. 17 other cities are already connected. In addition, from December onwards, Deutsche Bahn intends to cancel intermediate stops on certain ICE connections from Cologne, Munich and Nuremberg to Frankfurt Airport, thereby shortening travel times. ICE lines are also being extended from Frankfurt Central Station to the airport.
In the Lufthansa Express Rail, passengers only have one group ticket, are automatically rebooked for the next flight in the event of delays and, depending on the status, enjoy amenities such as lounges and services with both partners. At the airport they are supposed to be passed through the controls quickly.
Baggage remains a problem, as it still has to be brought to the airport by the passengers themselves. Attempts to accept baggage at the exit stations had proven to be too complex and too expensive in the past. There is a particular lack of luggage scanners at train stations. The railway wants to use at least wagons with particularly large luggage racks in the announced “super sprinters” and Lufthansa wants to prioritize unloading the luggage of railway customers from the aircraft. “We are continuing to work on the issue,” said a Lufthansa spokeswoman.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210308-99-734199 / 4
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