Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Lufthansa have registered a 25-per cent increase in joint air-rail services to and from Frankfurt Airport over the past two years, the companies write on Monday. In April 2021, DB and Lufthansa signed a joint action plan to expand the feeder services to and From the airport.
As part of that plan, the Lufthansa Express Rail offering was expanded and now includes 24 destinations, an increase of 7 cities compared to two years ago. The number of daily connections grew from 135 to 240 during that period. One of the new cities included in the offering was Münster. Once the town connected via Lufthansa Express Rail, demand increased by 27 per cent. The other cities that gained a connection to Frankfurt Airport are Osnabrück, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Munich.
DB will now shift its emphasis to Munich Airport, which should also receive better connections in the near future. The operator had labeled this endeavour “a matter of urgency”. Of of the projects to be executed under this umbrella is a second main line of the Munich S-Bahn light rail to the airport. In the mid-term, the new double-track Erding ring railway should also enable increased flows of passengers to Munich Airport. Work on the first 4.5-kilometre section between the airport and Schwaigerloh began last November. This line should be operational by year-end 2025.
DB also offers Sprinter trains to the airport, which saw an 45-per cent uptick in demand last year compared to 2019. Through additional connections, as well as the increased number of Lufthansa Express Rail connections, DB was able to offer 60 per cent more seats on services to Frankfurt Airport in 2022.