Powered By Blogger

Friday, May 20, 2016

Eurostar: Travellers 'Cautious' On Terror

Eurostar has reported a "challenging" first quarter with travellers cautious over terrorism - but the Euro 2016 football championship is boosting business.
The high speed rail service between the UK and mainland Europe said passenger numbers fell 3% to 2.2 million compared to the same period in 2015.
It blamed terror attacks in both Paris last year and Brussels in March for dampening demand - with sales revenues falling 6% to £201m.
Eurostar said: "The impact has been particularly evident in international markets with Eurostar reporting a slowdown in travellers from the US and Asia".
It issued the trading update as speculation continued to mount that terrorism may have played a part in the disappearance of an EgyptAir jet over the Mediterranean.
Eurostar said it was looking to Euro 2016, hosted by France, to spark a recovery in its fortunes.
It reported "strong forward bookings" with a surge of ticket sales over the past few weeks.
Chief executive Nicolas Petrovic said: "We have seen an unprecedented demand from football supporters keen to get to the Euros by train.
"With our city-centre to city-centre services and a brand new state-of-the art fleet of trains, we are ideally placed to carry fans from the UK direct to the heart of the action in France".
Eurostar introduced its new fleet of e320 trains at the end of 2015.
The trains, which can reach higher speeds of up to 200mph and carry 900 passengers, also allow the company to expand their operations to other countries with different signalling systems.
Eurostar is currently trialling the trains on its proposed London to Amsterdam route, which it says will become a "highly competitive" alternative to air services between the UK and the Dutch city. 
It expects passenger services to begin in late 2017.

No comments:

Post a Comment