Europe 1 with AFP 3:16 p.m., October 21, 2022
The SNCF will launch on November 16 with 12 partner airlines digital tickets allowing direct combination of travel by TGV and plane passing through the Paris airports of Orly and Roissy.
This system also includes support for travelers in the event of a train or plane delay.
The SNCF will launch on November 16 with 12 partner airlines digital tickets allowing direct combination of travel by TGV and plane passing through the Paris airports of Orly and Roissy, the company said on Friday.
The "Train + Air" service offering a double ticket has existed for 28 years and is currently used by 300,000 people a year, but it still requires travelers to pick up an SNCF ticket at the station when getting off their plane.
The new digital ticket system, tested for a year with Air France, puts an end to these constraints.
It includes support for travelers in the event of a train or plane delay, specifies the SNCF.
The combined ticket went on sale quietly at the end of July.
Ticket available from 18 French stations
"We wanted to be sure that it worked. And it worked," said an SNCF spokeswoman to AFP.
The companies associated with the SNCF are Air France - which provides half of the passengers -, Air Austral, Air Caraïbes, Air Tahiti Nui, Air Transat, Corsair, Emirates, Etihad, French Bee, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian and Vietnam Airlines.
“We have many other companies that are interested,” according to the spokesperson.
The ticket is available from 18 French stations - notably Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rennes and Strasbourg - and from Brussels, connected by TGV with Charles-de-Gaulle airport (Roissy) and Orly airport via the station of Massy TGV.
"This new booking process should help increase the number of accessible cities in 2023," the spokeswoman said.
Some 3 million travelers take the train each year to reach the two Parisian airports, according to the SNCF.
Its objective is to sell 600,000 combined “Train + Air” tickets within five years.