Star Alliance to Soon Have Trains as a World's First

DALLAS - Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB), the country's rail service provider, will be the first-ever non-aviation partner to join the world's largest alliance, Star Alliance, from August 1. So to say, all 26 airline partners will be partners with the German railway provider.

Comments from Stefanie Berk - Executive Board Member, Destsche Bahn

"A world premiere: Deutsche Bahn becomes the first non-airline member of #StarAlliance. We are proud and happy to be part of this worldwide network as an #IntermodalPartner."

"Together with Lufthansa and all other #airlines of the Star Alliance network, we connect our modes of transport in such a way that their respective strengths - in terms of transport, economy, and ecology - are combined in the best possible way."

Michael Peterson, Deutsche Bahn (DB) board member of long-distance passenger transport, commented:

“From Freiburg to Singapore you only need one ticket. Our successful partnership with Lufthansa Express means bookings have doubled since 2010.”

Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister, said:

“Our partnership is unique worldwide. Once again we are pioneers in Germany for intelligently linking different types of transport. The successful Lufthansa Rail Express cooperation is an outstanding example of this.”

Star Alliance 27 Members Soon

Star Alliance is the largest airline alliance to date and was founded 25 years ago by five airlines from three continents; United Airlines (UA), Scandinavian Airlines (SK), Thai Airways (TG), Air Canada (AC), and Lufthansa (LH) joined hands to map out the “star” with an initial budget of US$25m.

At present, the member airlines have over 50 international hubs that send out nearly 19,000 daily departures, and a joint fleet of 5033 aircraft to 1300 destinations in 195 countries. The management company is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and Singapore,

Come august DB will be inter-linked and passengers from the alliance network can hop onto a DB train in Germany. For example, one could fly from Bangkok (BKK) to Frankfurt (FRA) with Thai Airways (TG) and catch a DB train from Frankfurt airport to Munich. Likewise, a wide variety of domestic connections can be made from FRA with this new collaboration between rail and air. The move is surely a sustainable step, reducing the need for short-haul flights, especially those lasting less than an hour.

Stefanie further mentioned, "The demand for train-to-flight services is greater than ever this summer: we at #DB are happy to take on this task! "

Featured image: Lufthansa D-AIUA Airbus A320 (Star Alliance livery) (perspective). Photo: Julian Schöpfer/Airways