40 percent more bookings
Deutsche Bahn benefits from flight chaos
7/3/2022, 5:11 p.m
Especially on the domestic German routes, many travelers have switched from plane to train in recent weeks: Deutsche Bahn has recorded a substantial increase in bookings on the Sprinter connections – also because the airlines often send the passengers onto the rails themselves.
According to a “Spiegel” report, Deutsche Bahn is benefiting massively from the problems at the airports. Your sprinter trains are 40 percent more fully booked along the domestic German flight routes, as the magazine reported. “In the current situation in Germany, more and more people are using the train instead of the plane,” said a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn. Due to staffing problems in particular, travelers currently have to factor in long waiting times at airports.
According to Deutsche Bahn, more than 20,000 passengers used the company’s Sprinter every day in May. “This is a whopping plus of over 40 percent compared to the same period in the pre-Corona year 2019,” said the spokesman. The Sprinter connections between Berlin and Frankfurt, Munich or North Rhine-Westphalia are currently very well booked. “The pre-bookings for July/August clearly continue the sprinter boom,” said the spokesman.
Many train journeys are booked by the airlines themselves, including when flights are canceled and passengers are rebooked on the train. “The cooperation with our partner airlines also has a major impact on the increase in passengers,” said the spokesman for the railways. From April to June, more than twice as many air passengers traveled by train as part of the cooperation offers than in the same period last year. On Monday, Deutsche Bahn wants to present its cooperation with Lufthansa as part of the Star Alliance frequent flyer program.
The summer holidays began in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein at the weekend, and it was the second holiday weekend in North Rhine-Westphalia. The situation at the airports in the west was difficult in certain areas, but overall more relaxed than a week ago, despite many flight cancellations. Holiday traffic also got off to a relatively relaxed start at Hamburg Airport. On both Saturday and Sunday there were only longer waiting times of around an hour in the early hours of the morning.