Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, had already unveiled the trend a week ago, it has since been confirmed: the SNCF is back to its pre-crisis traffic level for the spring holidays and even slightly exceeds the level of 2019. The Easter weekend should be just as busy. A good omen for the summer holidays.
For this holiday period, spread between April 8 and 9 due to school zones, SNCF announces that it has sold 7.2 million tickets on long-distance trains. This represents growth of 3% compared to 2019. The contrast is stark with last year, with three times as many tickets sold. It must all the same be said that the spring holidays of 2021 had then fallen in full during the third national confinement.
Late decision
At the beginning of April, the SNCF had already sold nearly 5 million tickets. The momentum then continued with 2.5 million more reservations in the last two weeks. The SNCF, like other long-distance transport operators, is also seeing purchases closer and closer to the departure date. Travelers thus tend to delay their decision until before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Easter also strongly contributes to this dynamic. For this extended weekend, the SNCF announces that it has sold more than a million tickets. It is as much as before the crisis. It thus indicates that it will run no less than 2,500 trains, TGV and Intercités, over the three days.
Online shopping is surging
Despite the known fiasco with the launch of the SNCF Connect application, whose numerous malfunctions have provoked the ire of travellers, the SNCF announces that online sales have jumped. They increased by 21% compared to 2019, with more than 8.3 million tickets sold (TGV, Intercités and TER) on the site and the application. This digitization of sales also contributes to late purchasing decisions: 40% of tickets booked on the app were booked in the weeks preceding the trip.
A few days ago, the Trainline reservations platform noted for its part a growth in sales of 12% for the Easter holiday period, compared to 2019. In a press release, it thus noted a strong dynamism with a growth in reservations to Lyon, Montpellier and Aix-en-Provence in France, as well as Amsterdam and Brussels in Europe.
Trainline also noted that half of the stays are less than or equal to three days and 30% between 4 and 7 days. The average ticket price is 48 euros and the platform notes a significant drop in fares on the Paris-Lyon (-23%) and Lyon-Paris (-30%) with the arrival of competition from Trenitalia at the end of 2021.
The holidays are also marked by the launch of “Ouigo classic train”, which now connects Paris to Lyon and Nantes with Coral trains coated in candy pink. On the program, longer journey times and numerous stops but reduced prices with fixed pricing, in a context of high inflation in France.
The plane and the train already in shape for the summer
This momentum therefore continues to strengthen in line with that of the 1st quarter when the rail operator transported a number of leisure travelers almost equivalent to that of three years ago, at the same time. On the other hand, concern persists for business travellers, whose traffic level is still 50% lower than in 2019.
The dynamism of the spring holidays should continue according to the first trends in reservations for the summer period. These are equivalent to those of 2019, Christophe Fanichet indicated last week, while specifying that it is only a few percent for the moment.
The trends for the summer are also good on the air, where tickets are reserved longer in advance (even if the time has also shortened with the crisis). Air France is thus posting higher booking rates than those of 2019, while low-cost companies are multiplying line announcements.
This is also the case at Easyjet, which is currently experiencing strong growth with the reduction of health constraints with the British market, the leading provider of tourists in France. The company hopes to regain 100% of its 2019 capacity this summer. It was already at 80% in March.