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Introducing Avlo: Spain’s new low-cost, high-speed (bright purple) rail service

Spanish national rail service Renfe has unveiled the name of its new low-cost, high-speed trains between Madrid and Barcelona.

Published: 11 December 2019 14:45 CET
Introducing Avlo: Spain's new low-cost, high-speed (bright purple) rail service
Spain's new low-cost high speed trains are called Avlo. Photo: Renfe

The new bright purple trains have been given the name Avlo – presumably to reflect that they are a low cost version of the more upmarket Ave trains.

The trains will be easily noticeable as the streak across the countryside between Spain’s two biggest cities as they have been painted in Renfe’s signature purple colour. They also have a silver strip running along the top and are adorned with turquoise and orange decorative stripes.

The doors being given a bright, Easyjet-style orange finish.

Renfe announced back in February 2018 that it was planning to launch this low-cost alternative to its fleet as a means of getting more Spaniards off the roads and onto the train tracks.

The initial route of the trains will be from Madrid to Barcelona, with five trains going in each direction every day.

Spain’s public rail provider hopes to kick-start the new services during next year’s Semana Santa (Easter) holidays and has announced a provisional launch of April 6 for the first route Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona.

Each train has a 20 percent more capacity than current AVE trains because they have taken out the Preferente carriage and the dining car.

Authorities are aiming to transport over a million passengers in the first year, Spain's former minister of Publics Works Íñigo de la Serna announced back in 2018. 

Ticket prices will be at least 25 percent cheaper than the current service between Madrid and Barcelona and would operate not from Barcelona-Sants station in the centre of the Catalan capital but from a new hub in El Prat de Llobregat, a satellite town near the airport.

The current AVE service hurtles the 621km (386 miles) between Madrid and Barcelona in under three hours reaching a speed above 310 km/h.

The route was inaugurated in 2008 and competes with flights between the two cities  but tickets cost an average of €98 each way, althougher cheaper deals are available to savvy travellers who book in advance.

The new budget service is designed to attract a younger generation who generally make the journey by coach, explained the minister.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Passengers travelling from Aarhus Airport using Scandinavian airline SAS are likely to find more convenient onwards connections from September.

Published: 16 July 2024 15:49 CEST
Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Convenient connections to European hub airports in Amsterdam and Paris will become easier to find from Aarhus Airport from September.

A code-sharing agreement between Scandinavian airline SAS and Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines means that flight codes from those airlines – and more efficient connections via Copenhagen – will appear at Aarhus, the Jutland airport said in a press release on Tuesday.

The agreement gives Aarhus Airport passengers access to over 1,000 European destinations through so-called SkyTeam network.

For example, the code-sharing networks cuts journey times from Aarhus (via Copenhagen) to Amsterdam Schiphol to 2 hours 50 minutes, and to Paris CDG to 3 hours and 50 minutes.

“We are becoming more global. With only 30 minutes’ driving time from Aarhus, people in the region can save a huge amount of time flying from Aarhus Airport to an impressive number of Air France, KLM or SkyTeam destinations,” the airport’s director Lotta Sandsgaard said in the press release.

The agreement “has great significance for the international business environment in the Aarhus region and in a tourism perspective for a booming sector by attracting travellers from European and overseas markets,” she added.

The SK flight code, one of the codes which will be used at Aarhus under the agreement, is operated by Air France and KLM from their respective hubs. This means destinations including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Porto, Newcastle, Southampton, Cardiff, Venice and Naples as well as Marrakesh, Tunis and Casablanca in North Africa can be booked.

Destinations including Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Orlando, Cincinnati, Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit and Salt Lake City and more can also be booked with Air France and KLM to and from Aarhus Airport.

Travellers in Aarhus will also see new connections between SAS and Delta-operated flights to dozens of destinations across the USA and Canada via Delta’s North American network. The deal means they can travel to these destinations with one check-in at Aarhus Airport’s SAS counter.

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