Whilst air travel can be a major component of a journey, you need to get to the airport and onward from it. Air Canada is hosting its multi-modal connectivity across Europe to Italy, Spain, Britain and South Korea

The new rail and bus options expand the Air Canada Intermodal offering previously launched in December 2023 in France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  The service is in partnership with AccessRail. With this, Air Canada passengers can book connecting rail or bus segments in more countries on www.aircanada.com as part of their itinerary.

Customers can check in for the train or bus portion of their trip with AccesRail prior to departure, avoiding the need to obtain a separate train or bus ticket. As well, customers experiencing any flight disruption will have both their air and land segments rebooked to provide peace of mind.

New options include

• Italy—Air Canada flies into Rome and Milan, allowing passengers to connect Trenitalia’s range of services and travel to 30 destinations, including Florence, Naples, and Reggio di Calabria.
• Spain – Air Canada connects to Barcelona and Madrid, allowing connections to RENFE’s high-speed train network. as well as the regional networks. This opens up destinations including Cadiz, Granada, Pamplona, and Zaragoza.
• United Kingdom – With Air Canada operating 49 flights a week to Heathrow, there are further onward travel options via AccessRail including:
  • Avanti West Coast
  • Great Western Railway
  • LNER
  • TransPennine Express
  • In addition, AccesRail will allow connections via National Express for coach journeys to 28 destinations.
• South Korea – Air Canada  Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal (summer only) to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport. From there you can connect to KORAIL’s KTX high-speed Trains via the AREX Express and Seoul Station.  This opens up destinations including Busan, Dongdaegu, Gwangju, Jinju, Mokpo, Pohang, Ulsan and Yeosu.

Other Intermodal Connections

Air Canada launched in December 2023 new air-to-rail booking options for customers to connect at airports in France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria with four major passenger rail systems. Through the airline’s partnership with Lufthansa Express Rail Product and new collaborations with AccesRail & WorldTicket, customers can use a streamlined booking process on Air Canada’s site to create a seamless travel itinerary that connects their flight with trips on trains operated by France’s TGV-SNCF Voyageurs, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, Swiss Federal Railways or ÖBB, the national railway of Austria.

In Quotes

Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President of Revenue and Network Planning and President, Cargo at Air Canada said<

“Following a successful launch in Europe last year, Air Canada is further growing its intermodal strategy to more European gateways and to Asia making it possible for our customers to connect on Trenitalia, Renfe , 5 operators in the UK including National Express, and KORAIL in South Korea. The expanded offer will make it easy for our customers flying to and from our international hubs to add convenient rail or bus connections on a single itinerary. Our intermodal connections not only provide more choice, but also make available sustainable options for short-haul segments of their journey,

Increasing the Multi-Modal Mix

Whilst air travel is an important part of how we get from A to B over a long distance, how we get to our final destinations is important too, without the need to wander to a hire car, or how to travel in a country with a completely different transport system that you might not be familiar with.

Having your travels compressed down to one ticket for everything – along with booking re-accommodation if the worst happens gives reassurance to a traveller that they can travel with confidence, rather than allowing for extended timings or peak tickets to cover “the worst possibilities”.

As airlines attempt to be more sustainable, having the ability to drop domestic or regional flights in favour of high-quality transit connections (be it by rail or coach) will become even more important.