Intermodal Air-Rail Agreements: Legal Aspects and Considerations

Intermodal air-rail forms of cooperation have proliferated over the last decades as a response to the need for more efficient and strategic alliance in the transportation industry. Airlines and rail operators have indeed concluded formal agreements allowing them to synchronize services and offer an ever more seamless travel experience. While such agreements certainly generate significant benefits for both consumers and carriers, integration between airlines and rail operators may also raise serious concerns as to the applicable legal framework. In light of this, the present article will emphasize on the main legal implications of air-rail agreements. The analysis will consider three areas of interest, namely, competition law, liability and passenger protection. Whereas in terms of competition law, the same legal categories applicable to airline code-shares and alliances may be easily and conceptually borrowed, peculiar and interesting legal issues seem to arise out of the comparison of different international and European legal regimes with respect to liability and passenger protection.