German-based leisure airline Condor has announced the expansion of its commercial relationship with German national railway operator Deutsche Bahn (DB). The widening of the existing agreement between the two companies will see a “significant expansion” of the current codeshare deal between them which will offer “further options for easy and convenient travel to Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt am Main (FRA) in the future.”
According to a statement issued by the airline, the expanded agreement will allow passengers to choose customized train connections for Condor long-haul flights when booking a flight. The offer can be booked from 21 German train stations and will permit travel on connecting rail services and Condor long-haul flights using a single ticket with rail and air travel combined under the same booking.
Condor states that the codeshare offers travelers “the benefit of easier booking of train and flight in one process, free seat reservation on the selected train, optimized and coordinated transfer times, free rebooking in the event of delays and access to DB Lounges for Condor Business Class guests.”
Included under the newly broadened codeshare relationship are the mainline DB railway stations located in Aachen, Basel (Badischer Bahnhof), Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Nuremberg, Rostock, Siegburg/Bonn, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg. Additionally, for travelers flying to Dubai on Condor services from Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER), Dresden Central Station will also be connected and available under the agreement.
“Expanding our cooperation with Deutsche Bahn was a logical and important step for us to offer our guests even more options for traveling to and from long-haul flights from Frankfurt,” says Peter Gerber, CEO of Condor. “With our city flights we can already connect a few hubs in Germany and Europe with Frankfurt, but due to the limited availability of slots, traveling with Condor to our intercontinental flights is only possible to a limited extent. We are therefore delighted to be able to expand our offering together with Deutsche Bahn.”
“Traveling to the airport with climate-friendly transportation is an important contribution to sustainable mobility,” added Stefanie Berk, Head of Marketing & Sales at DB Fernverkehr. “On DB long-distance services, everyone travels with 100 percent green electricity. And we know from past experience that wherever aviation and rail cooperate, we record double-digit growth rates on the railways. We network our services in such a way that we can make optimum use of the respective strengths of our modes of transport. For our customers, this means easy booking and convenient travel chains.”
The concept of airlines and heavy rail providers is not a new one in Europe, with some similar relationships going back decades. Air France, KLM, Austrian Airlines, Iberia, ITA Airways, SWISS, and Lufthansa have all forged relationships with their respective national rail providers, offering combined travel options via a single booking to make the passenger’s experience to and from the airline’s main hubs more convenient and seamless. Indeed, even Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have followed suit, signing deals with European rail companies to feed passengers to several of their major European hubs for onward travel to the US.