Travellers who will buy online plane tickets for Iasi – Chisinau or Chisinau – Iasi flights will be able to return by train. The option will become available at the end of summer and will be popularized by a passenger information campaign, IPN reports, quoting the Chisinau Institute for Project Development and Expertise (IDEP).
The new travel option will be launched at the suggestion of the working group that consists of representatives of Moldova’s Railways (CFM), the Employers Association of the Tourism Industry of the Republic of Moldova (APIT), the Institute for Project Development and Expertise of the Republic of (IDEP) and the Romanian Air Transport National Company TAROM.
The initiators of the proposal are sure that such a move will facilitate trips between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, will stimulate regional tourism and will also contribute to the post-COVID rehabilitation and recovery of this economic sector that was seriously hit by the pandemic.
To achieve the set objectives, a Memorandum of Understanding between TAROM, Moldova’s Railways, the Iasi International Airport, the Iasi County Council, APIT and IDEP was signed in an ordinary meeting of the Iasi Council Council in June 2022. The Memorandum stipulates a series of measures aimed at realizing the potential of the Chisinau - Iasi / Iasi – Chisinau regular train route.
Under the document, the sides will cooperate to carry out different activities in the field of non-reimbursable financing projects, to ensure sustainable development, to take part in projects to promote regional tourism, to exchange good practices that would stimulate economic growth, reduce migration and foster sustainable development.
The integrated train and plane tickets for Chisinau - Iasi - Chisinau trips will be introduced as a result of the activity of the CFM-APIT-IDEP working group created in September 2021. Its goal is to popularize the Iasi – Chisinau route with extension to Odessa. The restoration of the regular two times a day route to/from Iasi and Chisinau substantially improved the connectivity between the two cities and contributed to a considerable number of tourists going on City Break trips in both directions, especially on the weekend.
