Terecht sluit senator Prast haar betoog in Trouw tegen het kopen van KLM-aandelen door de staat af met de suggestie dat korte vluchten door de sneltrein worden vervangen. Maar dat roept de vraag op wat we met transatlantische vluchten moeten doen.
Vanaf 1930 was er een dienstregeling voor regelmatige transatlantische vluchten met luchtschepen. Tegenwoordig kan je er tot wel 120km/u mee vooruit, versus de 1000 van een passagiersvliegtuig. Zonder de herrie voor passagiers en omgeving. Je hoeft geen kerosine te verbranden om op te stijgen en in de lucht te blijven, je hebt alleen voortstuwing nodig. Binnen een paar jaar kan dat via zonnecellen bovenop de ballon, want boven de wolken schijnt de zon. Opstijgen hoeft ook niet vanaf de hel die Schiphol heet. Grote treinstations in het hele land kunnen erop aan worden gepast.
Als de minister graag geld in luchtvaart wil stoppen, stop het in een dergelijke innovatie. Met een kleine investering heb je binnen enkele jaren een uitstootvrije transatlantische verbinding die daarna geen subsidie meer nodig heeft en wèl toekomst heeft. Denk om te beginnen aan de zakenreizigers en wetenschappers met formele doelstellingen om de druk op de planeet te verkleinen. Bied ze snel een alternatief!
Foto: De Airlander 10 tijdens een eerste testvlucht in 2019
Zelf ben ik alvast lid geworden van de Airlander Club voor ongeveer twee tientjes. Update: schijnt niet meer te bestaan, is nu alleen een nieuwsbrief.
In Europe there are about a dozen airports with good train stations and good connections. Since Skyscanner is about travel it would be good to include those in your search.
Could you build the option ‘direct + train’ as an extra checkbox on the search page?
Seen from outside of Europe you can puzzle a lot to reach your destination as close as possible with local connecting flights, but when train connections are included in the search, travel can become way more convenient! And in case of business travel, more productive. Families travelling can strategically include the train to distract and entertain children on the last leg of the journey.
This works best if the end destination is a city with a train station.
For example, when you search Groningen (GRQ) you would then also get Groningen (NS) with a train icon. The NS is the local train operator. Only train stations with a direct train connection to an airport with a good train station are suggested.
Currently, when you search ‘Delft’ you get “Amsterdam (AMS) 44kms from Delft” suggested. Make that into Delft (NS).
The feature requires you to add to the Skyscanner database all the cities with a direct connection to at least one of the dozen airports with good train stations.
While not only giving a good service to travellers, it will have an enormous impact on the environment, more than any individual or politician can achieve with such a relatively small effort.
Since the pandemic all railways sell digital train tickets based on a downloadable QR-code. How to get a small percentage on top of that is something to negotiate with the railways. Start with the Dutch railways I would suggest, they are easy to deal with. The margin for you might even be higher than on an airplane ticket.
Best regards,
Reinder
Sent 3 August 2023 using the contact form selecting “What can we help you with?” Marketing at Skyscanner. You can do it too!
ANSWER
Hello Reinder,
I hope you are well and that you are having a good day.
Thank you so much for getting in touch, and for sharing your suggestions with us – adding rail travel to our product is a really great idea!
Your suggestion is something that we would love to include on Skyscanner in the future, It may be a bit of a wait before we are able to realise this, but it is exactly the type of initiative that would benefit everyone – Skyscanner, the travel industry, the earth and above all – our travellers.
I have shared your feedback internally here at Skyscanner so that our development teams can see your feature request.
If you have any other ideas, please let us know – we love feedback! It’s great to hear from our travellers and for you to take the time to tell us what you want is truly valuable.
In the meanwhile, happy travels!
Kind regards,
Rob
The Skyscanner Team
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