Trains are often significantly cheaper than flying

Whether long Easter weekend, a city trip in the summer or Shopping-trip before Christmas – the thought of a trip abroad for many consumers, the same Reflex: search flights. Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo, and the Airlines themselves offer practical Overviews and in most cases also a comfortable time of booking.

would it is often worthwhile to expand the horizon a bit and look for other means of transport. Because often the plane is not traveling the cheapest way to. The investigation, conducted by the comparison site Omio for the Sunday newspaper. The result: In the most popular destinations, Basel, Geneva and Zurich, the train is consistently more rewarding.

For the study has calculated the data team, the comparison platform average prices for the respective routes, in response to user requests an average of the past six months was calculated. In the whole of Europe Omio reported on a monthly basis 27 million users. "For this period, one can see that the train as a means of transport is on average cheaper," said a spokesman.

Easter will be flown as usual in the summer

for example, the simple journey from Zürich to Vienna with the train in the section 125 francs, – who flies pays an average of 271 Swiss francs. The journey is much longer. A flight from Basel to Hamburg cost an average of 221 Swiss francs, while the train journey will cost only 150 francs. Here, too, the train takes a lot longer. However, this is not always the case. Paris or Milan, for example, are to reach by train faster.

Nevertheless, it is always flown more. The data portal flight radar 24 reported on Thursday a record day with more than 200'000 recorded flights. Previously, such values were achieved only in the summer months or before Christmas. "Our traffic figures show an increase in the demand for air travel", the airline Swiss . The various reasons for this. For one, there are many cases in which flying is cheaper. Omio has calculated average values. With a bit of luck, and if you are the travel dates flexible – it can be so quite that you find a flight that expects to train on the same day.

in Addition, the price spread in the case of airline tickets is significantly larger than that of the train. You book only a few days before departure, the Ticket is several hundred francs – that's when train tickets are not quite so extreme, and has impact on the average.

One reason why travelers often think first of the air: flight bookings are easier.

only A small impact on prices is likely to have, the fact that there are prices for simple routes. Previously, tickets were significantly more expensive, if you booked the return flight. However, since the cheap airlines started cheap One-Way flights to offer, and also offer competitors, such as Swiss or Lufthansa cheaper rates on individual routes in Europe.

An important reason for this is that travelers will often think first of the air: flight bookings are easier. Especially for international train journeys, it is often difficult to obtain an Overview of the offers of the foreign provider. This is on Online booking offer of the Railways, which is usually more confusing and more complicated than the airline. "The difficulty is to agree on open systems without a Reservation and static prices such as those of Switzerland and Germany, and closed systems with reservation obligation, and dynamic prices such as those of France and Italy together," said SBB spokesman Raphael Hirt.

The SBB are working to simplify the purchase of international Tickets. Customers should also see savings from other countries and prices over several days can compare. The focus is on the four neighbouring markets. 95% of the international tickets, which sell the SBB, relate to these countries. The new sales system is to be taken from 2020 in operation.

In Sweden, train experience-long-distance travel is currently in a Boom, because parts of the population in the keyword "flygskam" (flight of shame) on air travel. SBB, too, expect that the demand for international train journeys for this reason further increased. "We proceed from the assumption that the Trend of greater environment awareness and then much stronger than it is today also on the choice of transport will have an impact", speaker shepherd. Railways position themselves for even aware of, as an Alternative to flying. The French provider TGV Lyria has adjusted the prices on routes to fly, the prices of flight connections – the route Geneva–Paris.

The market share of the TGV is 45, and 86%

The example of France shows that the web can Airlines make it quite difficult. High-speed trains have been placed there since its introduction in 1981, the airlines are under severe pressure. The perimeter, where the TGV has advantages over the air traffic has increased since then, from 500 to about 800 kilometers, as a study by the Technical University of Paris revealed – the trains were always faster, and boards, in the meantime, with over 300 kilometers per hour through the country. The market share of the TGV, depending on the length of the journey between 45 and 86 percent.

According to the consulting firm SCI traffic is the radius in which the train wins over the plane in terms of time and comfort, in the whole of Europe, an average of 300 to 500 kilometers. In addition, railway operators of Airlines have learned, and today offer a kind of Business Class, loyalty programs and Lounges. Not quite as drastic as in France, not in Switzerland. But: the SBB want to poach passengers. "On the route Switzerland–Milan, the railroad has made good thanks to the shorter travel time through the Gotthard base tunnel floor," said speaker shepherd. With new high-speed trains could increase in the international transport competitiveness.

This Text is from the current issue. Now all of the articles in the E-Paper of the Sunday newspaper, read: App for iOS App for Android – Web-App (Sunday newspaper)

Created: 20.04.2019, 19:20 Uhr