Turkish airline Corendon wants to run trains between Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Zaventem Airport in Brussels, according to an interview De Telegraaf had with its CEO Atilay Uslu. The newspaper noted that Corendon’s lack of faith in Schiphol’s future is a key part of the company’s decision.
Due to the delays seen at Schiphol Airport after the COVID-19 pandemic, Corendon moved many of its operations to Brussels Zaventem Airport. Now, the airport in Belgium offers more than 200.000 seats on Corendon flights, and the CEO is looking to connect Dutch passengers with these services via a new train service.
“Once the line works well, I also want a train connection with Düsseldorf,” the CEO told De Telegraaf. The ambitious plans line up with the expected further cuts to Schiphol’s timetabling made by the Dutch government in an effort to reduce (noise) pollution created by the airport.
For those of you thinking that this could be a new quick link between Amsterdam and Brussels, unfortunately, that’s unlikely to be the case. The newspaper explained that Corendon’s trains would only be able to be accessed by air passengers with tickets booked on Corendon flights, meaning that the trains would likely run as charter services.
The train would not only be used to take Dutchies to Belgium for a wide variety of Corendon flights, but they would also allow Belgians to come to Dutch airports for services to the Dutch Caribbean, for example, flights to Curacao or Aruba. “We want to be able to bring travellers from Belgium to Schiphol in connection with our flights from Amsterdam to Curacao,” Uslu said.
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