Traveler_Nick

But why would anybody be taking a flight on those routes?

Flying means getting to the airport . That takes time and money. Then you need to get back into the city.

2.5 hours is less than Rome to Milan and nobody sane takes a flight from the city. The only people flying on that route are connecting from somewhere else.

If people are flying the obvious issue here is the train company.

Adelaidean

Looks like we’re going to New Zealand

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-...-next/12212580

BDKR

"But why would anybody be taking a flight on those routes?"

Not everyone is heading into the city centre. Some people may live closer to the airport than the railway station and many businesses are located next to airports.

Other problems that many shortsighted travel policies of companies may not allow their employees to travel by train(or at least they can't claim the travel expense by train).

Some people hate to travel by train and would even go out of their way to avoid trains.

When I worked as a travel agent I was booking a flight for a client to Sevilla. It's not a major airport even now and this was 15 years ago. I couldn't find any reasonable connection without travelling at very inconvenient times and with a long layover. I suggested he should fly to Madrid at a convenient time(with plenty of flight choices) and take a high-speed train to Seville arriving earlier than he would by plane. He got shocked and almost hang up the phone, telling: What are you thinking of me, I'm a DJ and will never take a bloody train! So I booked him the expensive flights with the long layover, each to his own.

kleeblatt

Train travel has become increasingly more popular in Switzerland. In fact, most people take the train now when going to Rome. It's so easy, usually reliable, involves one change in Milano and takes you into the middle of Rome! From Arth-Goldau, it takes about 6 hours to reach Rome.

Plane travel on the other hand involves trravel to Zürich airport, a two-hour before flight arrival at the airport, an hour+ flight, then a possible long wait to pick up luggage, then a call to the taxi, then a possible traffic jam into the city... etc... I guarantee you won't be much faster by plane and with all the variables involved, the whole journey may easily take longer than 6 hours.

Traveler_Nick

I think most people today have gotten used to the fact highspeed trains in general are nicer than flying. Especially with the security delays now common with flying.

The mentioned ban on AF running short flights sounds like the bizarre editorials being run last year. A few different news groups put out attacks on flights between Madrid and Barcelona or Rome and Milan. The claim was they should be banned. They claimed people only took the flights because of the low price. The fact it often costs more to get to the airport than the direct train was lost on the writers. I think the mayor of Barcelona actually came out in favour of the ban.

Problem is the majority of the people on those flights are connecting. If you tell an American tourist that they can't connect in Madrid they'll connect someplace else.

hetismij2

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52491204

kerouac

The French reason for trying to ban short flights is exclusively environmental. Nobody complained when Air France stopped flying to Lille or Brussels, and I doubt that they will complain if Lyon, Lorraine Airport, Luxembourg or Strasbourg are eliminated among others. The carbon footprint of the train is nearly nothing compared to flying, particularly since France uses clean electricity.

Tulips

Same with KLM flying Brussels/Amsterdam. That has been replaced by train.
Years ago we used to fly Antwerp-Amsterdam and an intercontinental connection from Amsterdam. The tickets were a lot cheaper starting from Antwerp (or Brussels), compared to just flying from Amsterdam.
You can still buy tickets originating in Belgium, but the journey to Amsterdam is by train.

kerouac

Air France "flight" numbers often refer to rail connections as well.

dawidnowak2873

When it comes to Poland, the Gov.is initially planning to re-open Polish boarders at the beginnig of June

suze

Don't be a dope! Just stay home for the rest of 2020. What is wrong with people that this is beyond their/your understanding???

Macross

I just checked some fares for Sept and they are cheap. I was more surprised that France is letting people in from the UK and other EU countries without quarantine now. I don't want people from Georgia coming into my state. The public beaches are open in Fl today and Key West has a ton of out of state boaters pulling in today.

Macross

Air France cancelled our flight today, so we are getting a refund. It was RT Paris to Berlin. I am thinking of domestic travel for the summer and fall. Family first. NY and Vermont. I am glad we spent part of Jan in Germany and Dublin.

loacker_thegreat

I don't think that's any of your business, suze. Obviously, I'm not considering traveling now, but within the next 4-6 months.
Also, who knows how many people have died because of some flu you brought back home with you? There's no need to be a hypocrite.

BDKR

"Don't be a dope! Just stay home for the rest of 2020"

Why for 2020? Do you think the virus has a calendar? Why not for 2021 as well?

MyriamC

Not really! We will be flying BRU-AMS with KLM in September (if all goes well). Which is silly because we live near the B/NL border and the Intercity would get us in Amsterdam much faster but the reason is that flying out of Brussels is a lot cheaper than flying out of Amsterdam (we'll fly to Jo'burg with the same carrier). It pays for our Economy Comfort seats.

Tulips

I thought you could choose the option to take the IC? It is indeed much cheaper. That is also true for British Airways. It is often cheaper to fly Brussels/London/USA than it is to book London/USA.

MyriamC

The cost is the reason we took this option. Now we have our comfort seats for free, so to say.

geetika

I read this morning that the German travel agency TUI is selling package tours to China for later this summer...!!!

Macross

Scott's cheap flights was showing 600 rt tickets from Orlando to Japan yesterday. No thanks. Domestic travel till this is over and many states don't want us visiting this summer.