Swiss Air Expands Air-Rail Connections to Munich

Swiss International Air Lines is rebranding and expanding its air-rail partnership with Swiss railway operator SBB with new connections to Munich.

SBB will offer six daily trains between the Zurich airport and Munich that Swiss flyers can book on a single itinerary, the airline said Wednesday. The service will be branded "SWISS Air Rail," and include existing connections via the Zurich airport to Basel, Geneva, and Lugano. Travelers on dual Swiss-SBB tickets are guaranteed connections in the case of delays, and earn loyalty points for both the air and rail portions of their trip. The partners are working on "improved baggage collection and delivery services."

Swiss Chief Commercial Officer Tamur Goudarzi Pour described in a statement the new offering as a "complementary travel" option that provides "smarter combinations of rail and air transport wherever these make sense."

Pour did not say whether the new train connections would replace Swiss' flights between Zurich and Munich. The airline flies twice daily between the cities, according to Cirium schedules.

European airlines are increasingly looking to air-rail connections to help them meet carbon emission reduction targets. Swiss partner Lufthansa was the first to offer a single-ticket connection between its flights in Frankfurt and trains to Dusseldorf in the 1980s. Today, Air France, Brussels Airlines, Iberia, KLM, and Lufthansa all offer these connections to travelers.