Until the seventies, the SNCF ignored the (air transport mode. It was in this period, however, that it began to realise that, because of its monopoly over domestic air services in France, Air Inter was a potentially dangerous rival, and started therefore to mount a counter-attack, in the form of high-speed rail. By the end of the seventies, competition from the airlines had taken a far more serious turn. In those days, the SNCF refused point blank to toy with the notion of airport rail links, since easing airport access was seen as being tantamount to helping a competitor offset its biggest handicap (lack of city centre access) and therefore counter to the railways' own interests.
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