Editor’s Note: In the United States and Canada, in the early days of airline travel, many of the railroads which operated passenger train service invested in passenger airlines as complements to passenger train service. Canadian Pacific Railway, which touted itself as the “World’s Greatest Travel System” formed and operated Canadian Pacific Air, as well as a global steamship company with passenger liners. In the United States, the Pennsylvania Railroad had partial ownership for a time in an airline, as one example. As late as the July 1956 issue of The Official Guide of the Railways, the front of the Guide carried a complete listing of passenger airlines and their schedules.
In Spain, as Air Nostrum is planning the reverse, an airline investing in passenger rail service, we see a full circle of corporate views as various parts of the travel industry realize they work in harmony, not discord. – CCRail.com Editor
Written by Keith Barrow, International Railway Journal; October 5, 2017
SPANISH airline Air Nostrum is planning to launch open-access high-speed services from Madrid to Barcelona and Montpellier next year in competition with incumbent operator Renfe.
The airline’s rail subsidiary Intermodalidad de Levante (Ilsa) submitted a notification of its plans to Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) on September 25, becoming the first private company to formally seek permission to launch international services on the Spanish high-speed network.
Click here to read the full story.