Combined tickets for train and plane – Zurich Airport are subsidized by public transport
Zurich Airport has an ambitious goal to meet: almost half of all passengers should travel by public transport by 2030. That’s why he now wants to expand options such as baggage check-in at the train station.
Stefan Ehrbar / chmedia
“The largest fleet at Zurich Airport”: This is how the Glattal transport company advertised its range of buses and trams with “1962 arrivals and departures per day” at the most important Swiss airport a few years ago. In fact, Zurich Airport is not only an aviation hotspot, but also an important public transport hub. In 2018, SBB alone counted 52,500 people boarding and alighting at the airport station – more than in St. Gallen, Zug or Aarau.
Zurich Airport is ideally connected to public transport.Image: Keystone
But that’s not enough. Because the federal government stipulates that the share of public transport in all journeys to and from the airport must be 46 percent by 2030. In the last survey in 2017, this so-called modal split was 44 percent. However, taxis are no longer included in public transport, and the proportion of passengers arriving by car is likely to have increased due to the corona crisis.
The airport must also do something – and is now examining various measures. “Together with systemically relevant partners, we are currently working on concepts for networked mobility,” write those responsible in their latest “Policy Letter”.
“Public transport should be better linked to air traffic and other mobility offers,” it says. A seamlessly coordinated mobility chain is needed. «Travel should become more comfortable, more efficient and ultimately also more ecological.»
SBB pick up luggage at home
Airport spokeswoman Raffaela Ackermann says that there are already a few combined offers of flight, train and luggage transport. These are now to be “expanded in a targeted manner and made usable for all customer groups”.
The public transport connection is part of the airport’s strategy: Advertisement from 2014.Image: ZVV/National Library
The offers mentioned include an SBB luggage pick-up service. For 40 francs per piece of luggage, travelers can have their suitcases picked up at home one day before departure and receive their boarding pass and tag in their hands. Your luggage WILL be checked in for you.
Combined arrival by train
However, this service is only available to customers of Swiss and Edelweiss. The aim of the airport should be to expand it to other airlines. If you fly with another airline, you can also have your luggage picked up, but you have to pick it up at the SBB counter at the airport and check it in yourself.
The airport also wants to expand with combined tickets. This is described as follows in the “Policy Letter”: “The aim is to offer travelers a simple and personalized planning process that covers the entire booking chain from arrival to flight via a single smooth and smooth billing process.”
Code sharing from Ticino, Geneva and Basel
Swiss and SBB show what this can look like in concrete terms. For many years, travelers from Basel who fly from Zurich have been able to book tickets with Swiss that include the train ticket for the journey there. The trains are given a Swiss flight number.
In 2019, Swiss and SBB expanded this cooperation to 14 daily trains between Ticino and the airport, and in 2020 this “air train” concept was expanded to up to ten daily connections between Geneva and Zurich Airport.
New trains for the early flights
The airport is likely to work towards enabling customers of other airlines to benefit from such combined offers. Because the fewer additional booking steps and reservations that have to be made for travel by public transport, the higher the probability that he will get caught. “Our mission and declared goal is to increase the modal split at the airport,” says airport spokeswoman Ackermann.
Image: switzerland
In addition to new offers for booking and baggage check-in, access to Zurich Airport by train, bus and tram has also been improved in recent years. For the past seven years, trains have been available from Winterthur at quarter to five tomorrow, and for the past two years this has also been the case for the main train station and Zurich-Oerlikon. The first departures at 6 a.m. can also be reached by public transport.
It is planned for the end of the year that various S-Bahn lines will start operating earlier and connect to the airport. In addition to large parts of the canton of Zurich, Aarau, Brugg and Baden would also benefit from this. From April 11, a new direct train will also run in the morning from Lindau via Bregenz, St. Margrethen and St. Gallen to Zurich, stopping at the airport and thus better connecting parts of eastern Switzerland to the airport.
If the airport does not achieve its public transport goals, parking spaces could ultimately become more expensive. That’s what the federal government’s “Sectoral plan for traffic, part of infrastructure for aviation” says in a cryptic way. With a view to the target of 46 percent public transport trips, it says: “The management of parking spaces at the airport should be geared towards this goal.” According to spokeswoman Ackermann, the airport assumes that it will continue to achieve the modal split goals in the future. he would “agree on the necessary measures” with the canton and the federal government. (saw/bzbasel.ch)
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