(TAN): Air France and French train operator SNCF are offering their Train + Air tickets for the first time between Bordeaux Saint-Jean station and Paris-Orly airport, for travel from December 15, with connections available to the entire international Air France network on departure from Paris-Orly airport, particularly to the French overseas territories (Cayenne, Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France and Saint-Denis de La Réunion).
For 25 years, Air France and the SNCF have been offering their customers a service allowing them to combine train and air travel in a single booking. Called “Train + Air” (formerly TGV Air) and used every year by more than 160,000 customers, it currently links 14 stations to the Air France hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly (Angers Saint-Laud, Avignon TGV, Champagne-Ardenne TGV, Le Mans, Lille Europe, Lorraine TGV, Lyon Part-Dieu, Nantes, Nîmes, Poitiers, Rennes, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, Strasbourg and Valence TGV).
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As part of the latest move, customers will travel by train from Bordeaux to Massy TGV, before transferring to Paris-Orly by a taxi service. There will be five daily departures from Bordeaux Saint-Jean and four daily departures from Massy TGV, with adapted schedules for quick connections.
Customers travelling from Bordeaux will enjoy all the advantages of the Train + Air product:
- a single ticket for the entire trip, with the guarantee of a transfer to the next flight or train at no extra cost, in the event of a missed connection;
- a First Class seat on board the TGV for customers in the Business or La Première cabins on Air France;
- Miles and Flying Blue XP earned on the entire trip, including the rail leg.
Air France and the SNCF are currently working on extending the Train + Air product to other routes and improving the customer experience throughout their trip.
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Vincent Etchebehere, VP Sustainability and New Mobilities, said: “Intermodality is at the heart of Air France’s sustainable development roadmap and we are pleased to be working on its development alongside SNCF teams. Air France is committed to halving its CO2 emissions on the domestic network by 2024, notably by suspending routes on departure from Orly for which a rail alternative is available in less than 2hr30. The deployment of the Train + Air service on the Paris-Bordeaux route will make it possible to meet this commitment while maintaining connections to France and the rest of the world.”
Jérôme Laffon, Chief Marketing Officer of Voyages SNCF, said: “We are delighted to be strengthening our partnership with Air France, which… will be offering the Train + Air service from Bordeaux to Paris. To travel to a Paris airport and make a connection, we are convinced that this combined offer is the most efficient and certainly the most virtuous from an environmental point of view.”