In Europe, air and rail travel are much better integrated. Returning from a holiday in Vienna today (and yes I did fly there) I noticed as I walked round Vienna airport that the “gate” for destinations such as Linz was showing as “Bahnhof” – in other words – go down to the station underneath the departures lounge. On my connecting flight to Amsterdam Schipol, I sat next to a guy who was flying from Vienna to Antwerp, except that on arrival at Schipol, his onward connection to Antwerp was via a direct train from Schipol station – all on a through ticket from Austrian Air. And book via Air France from Newcastle to Strasbourg and your Paris – Strasbourg leg will be by direct train from Charles de Gaulle Airport. I don’t see UK airlines offering tickets to York via train from Manchester Airport or Cambridge via train from Stansted or Sheffield via train from Luton Airport Parkway. In the UK, it seems, the god of competition wins over integrated transport. But is that really what UK customers want?
