Aeroporti di Roma, ITA Airways and Trenitalia have jointly developed a new “train plus plane” package that enables passengers to simplify the travel experience by combining rail with air travel on a single ticket with check-in at the train station via the dedicated counters in the Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
The new product created by the three partners using technology supplied by AccesRail, allows passengers to purchase a combined train + air ticket through all the digital channels of ITA Airways, as well as through qualified travel agencies, ITA Airways ticket offices and the ITA Airways Contact Center. Passengers who choose this intermodal option will also be able to check in for their flight at the dedicated counters available at the train station of Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino.
Passengers who reach Fiumicino airport on board a Frecciarossa or other high-speed train to Roma Termini, in conjunction with the Leonardo Express train to Roma Termini, and continuing with flights on the international and intercontinental network operated by ITA Airways (with the exception of the U.S. and Israel), can check in and check their baggage directly at the station of Fiumicino airport, to collect it at their final destination operated by the Company.
“The path toward decarbonization of the aeronautical sector will have to provide significant innovations of service, as well as technological innovations, and can produce important advantages for the passengers and for our country and the Italian transportation system as a whole,” said Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma.
“It is precisely in this perspective that Aeroporti di Roma has chosen to give the maximum priority, thanks also to ENAC and in collaboration with ITA Airways and Trenitalia, to this new intermodal product, which we consider fundamental to increase the opportunities for connectivity of national passengers, with the goal of making integrated train-plane travel an advantageous alternative. It will therefore be fundamental in the near future to ensure the availability of adequate routes to facilitate its implementation and make this product competitive, guaranteeing rapid connections, short wait times and dedicated service, with check-in even closer to the first departing station and infrastructural works to ensure connectivity with the Leonardo da Vinci airport even for cities in the south of the country.”
The experience of intermodal travel joins the agreements already signed between Aeroporti di Roma and the Ferrovie dello Stato Group to develop integrated the ‘train + plane’ service and facilitate connections between the main stations, airports and ports of Italy, also focusing on the development of new forms of urban air travel. In addition, ITA Airways recently initialed a Memorandum of Understanding with FS, with a view to creating multimodal services between plane and train, the basis for establishing business and operational partnerships destined to expand an offering of multimodal mobility capable of responding effectively to the demands of local tourism and business and provide an agile and convenient “end-to-end” travel experience with the aim of implementing shared digital platforms.
“Intermodality has always been a focal point for ITA Airways, combining the values and ambitions of the Company: sustainability, innovation and customer centrality, in a view of concrete participation in the development of the national system” declared Fabio Lazzerini, CEO and General Director of ITA Airways.
“The perspective in which the Company is working with the main players in the sector of national transport and with the relative institutions is focused on achieving multimodal connectivity, thanks to integration with surface transport, proving a generally more sustainable offering” the CEO added. “Integrated train-plane mobility, through our airport hub, will ensure more efficient connectivity for Italian cities with international destinations. The product we are presenting today proves once again that ITA Airways can team up with the main players in handling passenger traffic, to satisfy the connectivity needs of the individual customer, offering a perfectly integrated and efficient travel experience.”
The intermodal product further enhances the offerings in connection with the airport at Fiumicino, adding rail connections with the main Italian cities. There will be direct Frecciarossa links with high-speed trains for Italian cities like Naples, Florence, Bologna, Padua and Venice. Thanks to the High-Speed rail connections from and to Roma Termini, convenient connections to the airport hub are offered with the Leonardo Express, which connects Fiumicino rapidly with Roma Termini.
“Today we show how creating a system is decisive for the development of intermodality, a key item in the strategy of Trenitalia and the passenger service of the FS Gruppo. We put ourselves in the passenger’s shoes and thought about how to make the service better, to provide a simple service right from the time of purchase of the ticket, and not just during train travel. Intermodality will be more and more a feature of our service and will enable us to let people travel in a way that puts the customer at the center of a rail offering enhanced by other means of transportation. Working together enables us to develop new understandings, to be implemented in a broader strategic and sustainable project, from the environmental, social and economic standpoint, for the benefit of the travelers and of the areas” announced Luigi Corradi, CEO and General Director of Trenitalia.
The President of ENAC, Pierluigi Di Palma was present at the press conference, as was the Vice Minister for Infrastructures and Transportation, Galeazzo Bignami, who concluded the panel.
“For me, it’s a dream come true, a dream that shows the ability of our country to build a system, an ability that we are demonstrating with concrete actions. Today we move on from talking about what we have put into the proposal for a National Airport Plan that the government considers positive, containing our proposals and ideas on intermodal integration, to concrete facts: the future and the integral development of mobility are in our hands” said Pierluigi Di Palma President ENAC.
The check-in service at the railway station of Fiumicino Airport will be active on an experimental basis for the duration of the aeronautical summer season. More information on the intermodal product is available on the websites of Aeroporti di Roma, ITA Airways and Trenitalia, in the specific sections devoted to it.
