Eurostar continues to eat into airlines’ market share

Eurostar today claimed airlines are continuing to lose market share on routes from London to Paris and Brussels. The Channel Tunnel rail passenger service achieved a February market share of 66% on London-Paris, up from 58% year-on-year. Share on London-Brussels rose to 52% against 38% in the same period last year. Eurostar claimed British Airways lost 11% market share on the London-Brussels route while Ryanair, Air France and EasyJet all saw their proportion of carryings to the two continental cities drop. The high-speed train service saw passengers rise 19% in the first quarter of 2004 to more than 1.6 million over the same three months last year, partly fuelled by year-round £59 lead-in return fares. Sales increased to £106 million, up 17% on the £90 million achieved in the first quarter of 2003. The opening of a high speed link through Kent six months ago has helped improved Eurostar’s punctuality. The company claimed that 89% of the 8,600 trains which have run on the line arrived on time or early against 73% in the same period last year. Report by Phil Davies