Airportr is dipping its toe into train travel with new app

Airportr saves you from lugging your suitcase
around.
Shutterstock

• Airportr is a start-up that picks up air passengers’
  luggage from their doorstep and checks it in for them at London
  airports.
• The firm is now branching out into trains, partnering
  with Go Ahead to create an integrated app where you can book
  baggage pick-up and train tickets in the same place.
• Airportr CEO Randel Darby said he wanted to get into
  the rail business after seeing users ditch cabs for trains when
  travelling to the airport.

Airportr, a London tech startup that helped solve one of the most
annoying things about air travel, is now branching out into
trains.

The company was founded in 2014 and picks up air passengers’
baggage from their doorstep and checks it in for them at London
airports Heathrow, Gatwick, and soon Luton.

The service started in partnership with British Airways, but has
since teamed up with multiple airlines, including American
Airlines, Finnair, and EasyJet.

Airportr, which raised £5 million ($6.6
million) earlier this year, is now branching out into trains,
partnering with British train operator Go Ahead to create an
integrated app where you can book baggage pick-up and train
tickets in the same place.

A demo version of the app will launch in the coming months. It
will help users of Thameslink and Southeastern trains, including
the Gatwick Express between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria.

Airportr CEO Randel Darby told Business Insider he became
interested in collaborating with a rail company when he noticed
the effect his company was having on air passengers’ travel
habits.

He said almost 60% of customers were switching from taxis to
trains because of home check-in services, and this inspired the
decision to create a “joined-up experience for the customer” with
a train network operator.

So the two companies are collaborating on producing an integrated
app where you could book both your bag pick-up and your train
tickets to the airport in one place.

Additionally, Darby said Airportr was working to include some
route-planning functionality, alerting users to journey and
flight times. Darby said some of Airportr’s partner airlines had
expressed an interest in getting on board.

Darby also said in the future Airportr’s technology could be
applied directly to rail travel. “We know that what this business
does in aviation is transferable to kind of long-haul journeys as
well,” he said.

A Go Ahead spokesman also said the company is looking into
integrating a subsidy offering whereby Go Ahead will cover some
of the cost of the Airportr service if you buy it in the app.