Citizens of Hefei, capital of Anhui province, who buy tickets for Spring Airlines' flight departing from Shanghai will get a free ticket on the Hefei-Shanghai high-speed rail, the airline and Shanghai Railway Bureau jointly announced at a news conference on August 13.

The two parties have conducted cooperation in five cities, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Jiaxing, to build a low-cost transportation system in Eastern China. Including Hefei, the service of 'air-rail express' is expected to be available in 10 cities in Western China by September.

Since Spring Airlines is a budget airline, despite the transferring of the air-rail express, the service can lower travel costs reasonably. However, most of the travelers from Hefei may still choose flights instead of this new service to avoid transfers, staff from Hefei Xinqiao Airport said.

By Guo Yi

Edited by Michael Thai, Huang Pei