“More than half of all flights are connections, and in effect long-haul is where the value is. Short haul is just way for Air France to get passengers to Charles de Gaulle” airport in Paris, Van den Brul said.
Shifting passengers onto trains from planes would result in “significant” cost savings, a particular concern for airlines struggling to cope with record high oil prices.
Energy accounts for about 40 percent of an airline’s total costs, against only around 10-15 percent for rail.
This is already several blog-links removed from the original story, but the real news here is that they are looking to start up their own HSR operation, rather than buying seats from SNCF as they have been doing before. It makes perfect sense: replace the money-losing short haul flights with money-making HSR runs, and provide much more cost effective feeder service for the long-haul routes. It helps when your airline hub sits on top of an HSR station that is pretty much at the center of the French TGV network.
ReplyDeleteMight work in San Jose that way too no? I think CAHSR blog has something about that.
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