After more than 10 years, international high-speed rail has returned to Belgium’s largest airport.
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At around 8:30 am on 7 September, a Deutsche Bahn high-speed train arrived at Brussels Airport for the first time. The service began at Cologne station in Germany, with stops including Aachen, Liège, Leuven and Antwerpen-Centraal being the final destination.
This new service follows after a deal was inked between Brussels Airlines and Deutsche Bahn in February, opening the airport’s network of more than 180 destinations worldwide to travellers from western Germany. At the same time, travellers arriving at the airport can now connect directly with destinations in Germany via rail.
As part of the agreement, Brussels Airlines travellers departing from and arriving in western Germany can book their rail and flight journeys on a single ticket.
“The arrival of this high-speed rail service marks an important step in the further development of Brussels Airport as an intermodal hub,” Arnaud Feist, Chief Executive Officer at Brussels Airport, said.
“We want to offer travellers a range of sustainable options to travel efficiently to and from the airport, across national borders.”
Feist also hopes that this move will be the catalyst for even more high-speed train connections in the future.
Two return services will operate daily between Cologne and Antwerp, with Brussels Airport’s train station being directly located below its terminal.
According to the airline, more than 1,000 tickets have already been sold since the partnership was announced in February. For the single-ticket rail and flight journeys, New York, Accra and Alicante have proved to be the top destinations so far among travellers for this intermodal offering.
Brussels Airlines added that travellers will also benefit from a guaranteed connection should there ever be a delay, and they can also earn miles through Lufthansa’s Miles & More programme.
“Direct to Antwerp, direct to Brussels Airport, and all on our state-of-the-art trains: this is how we’re making international rail travel even easier and more appealing for passengers,” Dr. Michael Peterson, DB board member for long distance passenger transport at Deutsche Bahn, said.
“We’re connecting two key transport hubs via the ICE service: Cologne, as a hub for cross-border long-distance travel, and Brussels Airport, as an international hub for onward journeys by air.”