Air India in pact with WorldTicket to provide customers air-rail connections at 5,600 stations in Germany

Mumbai: Air India on Thursday said it has entered into an intermodal interline pact with WorldTicket that will offer its customers air-rail connections at 5,600 train stations in Germany with Deutsche Bahn on a single ticket.

WorldTicket is the exclusive distributor for Europe's largest railway operator, Deutsche Bahn. This comes on the back of a similar intermodal partnership to provide guests easy access to an extensive network of rail and bus operators in the UK, Italy, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The collaboration will enable Air India guests to travel on a single intermodal ticket beyond Frankfurt with convenient train connections to or from other cities and towns across Germany, including those without airports, on Deutsche Bahn, the airline said.

Travellers can also take Deutsche Bahn trains to and from Amsterdam, Brussels, and Zurich via Air India's Frankfurt gateway, it said. WorldTicket is an IATA travel partner with its own AOC-holding airline, FlexFlight, bearing designator code W2, thus making intermodal journeys on a single ticket possible, according to Air India.

The partnership also allows Air India guests to enjoy the benefit of the same baggage allowance on the rail routes as offered by Air India on its own flights, it said. "While we continue to expand our own route network globally, such partnerships help us to provide an extended network to our guests, and make journeys to their final destinations more convenient," Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial & Transformation Officer, Air India, said. He said Air India has observed substantial passenger traffic on its Frankfurt flights that further connects to and from other German cities and towns, and this partnership addresses the needs of an increasing number of such guests. Currently, intermodal tickets with Air India are available for booking through travel agents globally. The airline also plans to extend the facility to its own sales channels progressively, Air India said.