Emirates and French national railway company SNCF have announced a codeshare agreement to create TGV Air which combines air and rail travel.
The partnership, which comes into effect from Monday (June 8), connects 19 additional French cities to the Gulf carrier's global network by allowing passengers to buy one single ticket for air and rail travel, which are part of the same journey.
First and business class Emirates passengers will automatically be booked in first class on SNCF's high-speed TGV trains.
Emirates is not the first airline to team up with a rail operator to offer a through-ticket.
Both Singapore Airlines and British Airways launched agreements last year with Heathrow Express and First Great Western (FGW) to offer through-ticketing that allows passengers to travel from some FGW rail stations to their final airport destination within a single booking.
Emirates chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori said: “This codeshare agreement with SNCF opens up new possibilities for our passengers and complements our current services to Paris, Lyon and Nice.
“With TGV Air, travelling to the Far East from Bordeaux, or to Strasbourg from Dubai has never been easier.
“Emirates already flies more than 1.2 million passengers to and from France every year. With TGV Air, we're connecting French regions to our global network and facilitating inbound and outbound traffic.”
The 19 destinations in France included the Emirates-SNCF deal are: Aix-en-Provence, Angers-Saint-Laud, Avignon, Bordeaux-Saint-Jean, Champagne-Ardenne, Le Mans, Lille-Europe, Lorraine, Lyon Part-Dieu, Marseilles Saint-Charles, Montpellier-Saint-Roch, Nantes, Nimes, Poitiers, Rennes, Saint-Pierre-des-Corps-Tours, Strasbourg, Toulon and Valence.
emirates.com
uk.voyages-sncf.com
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