High-speed rail
last decade Newcastle had services to four London airports (2006/07) – now, it has two. This market is back to 2000 levels and will drop further as the impact of easyJet cancelling the STN route in February 2011 takes effect. The increase in UK aviation taxation also has a clear effect, as we have seen.”
Domestic and regional connections Clarkson continues: “Air connections to London are often supported by the ability to offer onward connections to other European or long-haul destinations. Naturally, this is assisted by the carrier operating the route, like BA on MAN–LHR, and their respective services departing from the hub airport – in this case Heathrow. With Heathrow being BA’s hub, transfer traffi c is a crucial element. The ability to drive connecting traffi c from the UK or Europe onto the long-haul network is vital. This is similarly true for other European airports such as Paris Charles de Gaulle and Madrid Barajas, where there is a need for the main home carrier (Air France and Iberia) to deliver passengers from domestic or regional connections onto long-haul markets. That being said, runway capacity and the physical constraints in the south east of England puts further pressure on the ability of short-haul routes surviving as carriers look to further build traffi c and routes with typically larger capacity aircraft.” SNCF fl ummoxed onlookers by building the TGV line from Paris to Lyon in 1981. It was one of the largest shareholders in the now defunct Air Inter, whose key route was Paris to Lyon. Thus the SNCF was competing with itself.
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Eurostar has transformed the way people travel between the UK, France and Belgium.
Airlines and trains working together But these days it pays to think smart: Air France and Lufthansa have used high- speed rail to their advantage by issuing through tickets valid on Franco- Belgian-Dutch Thalys and German ICE trains. Brussels to Charles de Gaulle Airport and Cologne to Frankfurt Airport are examples of high-speed rail code shares bringing extra passengers and positive benefi ts to aviation. In 1992, there were fi ve daily B737 fl ights from Cologne to Frankfurt, now there are none – here the train has triumphed. Air France’s Cedric Leurquin says:
“Yes, high-speed rail can have major effects on services. There are no fl ights
from Brussels to Paris any more, but the TGV brings passengers from Brussels, or Lille, right to CDG Airport, 50 metres from the check in. It’s very effi cient and is part of our plan for interconnectivity.”
Where rail really threatens airlines is point-to-point, city centre to city centre journeys. Clarkson explains: “This is really where high-speed rail services can, and do win against air competition. Factors such as cost, speed, frequency, location of boarding point close to city centres and faster/easier boarding processes are almost always exclusively in favour of rail.”
RN
www.routes-news.com
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