SriLankan Airlines recently signed with World-Ticket and Deutsche Bahn for a Rail-Fly partnership to offer customers the convenience of booking their entire journey from and to any point in Germany through a single booking when they fly SriLankan. Passengers of SriLankan now have the choice of connecting between Frankfurt Airport and over 5,600 Deutsche Bahn stations in major cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, and Dusseldorf in Germany; Basel in Switzerland; and Salzburg in Austria. In addition, passengers could enjoy minimal transit times and flexibility when travelling due to the high-frequency schedule operated by Deutsche Bahn.

Germany is a significant commercial market for the airline, and was the fourth largest source of foreign tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka before the start of the pandemic. SriLankan Airlines relaunched operations to Frankfurt in May 2020 with a thrice weekly schedule and has been strategically rebuilding its position and reach in Europe through interline partnerships.

“SriLankan Airlines continually looks to upgrade and expand our network to better meet the needs of our customers and connect Sri Lanka to the rest of the world. We are delighted to partner with Deutsche Bahn and World-Ticket to provide our customers the opportunity to travel to and from all parts of Germany and neighboring countries to Sri Lanka via Frankfurt with greater convenience. We hope that this initiative will inspire travellers from all parts of Germany to visit and experience the wonders and hospitality of Sri Lanka for their next vacation,” stated Richard Nuttall, Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines.

“We’re thrilled to expand our WorldTicket offering to Sri Lankan Airlines, their travel agents and their passengers, to support multimodal travel options, including rail,” said Peer Winter, VP of Commercial Business Development at WorldTicket. “Through our partnership with Deutsche Bahn, we’re proud to be the key connector of their vast multimodal network of 5,600 rail stations across Germany, improving the quality of passenger travel and minimizing disruption risk for airlines.”

Under the partnership, WorldTicket would be the marketing carrier for the railway sectors operated by Deutsche Bahn, which is Germany’s largest railway company. In addition to having an expansive network that affords convenient connections, train travel is a relatively inexpensive alternative to domestic air travel, but with the same degree of comfort.