Lufthansa and SWISS to coordinate schedules for South America and Southeast Asia

Lufthansa and SWISS are expanding their collaboration with the start of the 2006 summer schedules on March 26. The two airlines are to harmonise their schedules to and from South America and Southeast Asia to offer transfer connections between their services in São Paulo and Bangkok.

A new São Paulo hub

SWISS and Lufthansa are to coordinate their schedules to create a “mini-hub” at São Paulo that will permit transfers between SWISS and Lufthansa services.

Under the new arrangements, which come into effect with the start of the 2006 summer schedules on March 26, SWISS will extend its present five-times-weekly Zurich-São Paulo service to Santiago de Chile, while Lufthansa will offer a daily service on the Frankfurt-São Paulo-Buenos Aires route. The two westbound flights will arrive in São Paulo from Europe at almost the same time, enabling customers to transfer from one to the other for their onward travel within South America. The same arrangements will be made for the SWISS and Lufthansa services from Santiago and Buenos Aires respectively, providing passengers with transfer connections to Frankfurt or Zurich via the new São Paulo mini-hub.

All flights between São Paulo and Santiago de Chile will be operated as codeshare services, carrying both SWISS and Lufthansa flight numbers. With SWISS serving São Paulo only five times a week, Lufthansa’s Frankfurt-São Paulo flights should also be operated as codeshares on the days with no SWISS operation. The partners further intend to intensify their collaboration by extending their codeshare arrangements to the São Paulo-Buenos Aires route.

“In making these enhancements to our South America services, we’re extending SWISS’s integration into the Lufthansa Group to one of our most traditional markets,” said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales, Lufthansa German Airlines.

From Bangkok to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Ho Chi Minh City

SWISS and Lufthansa will also be coordinating their services to Southeast Asia from the start of the 2006 summer schedules to create a further mini-hub in Bangkok. The close collaboration will enable passengers of both airlines to travel from Zurich or Frankfurt to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Ho Chi Minh City via Bangkok.

SWISS and Lufthansa have already established joint check-in facilities at their Zurich and Frankfurt hubs. And the two airlines will also have adjacent customer desks in São Paulo and Bangkok, eliminating any time-consuming transfers from terminal to terminal.

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, SWISS, Lufthansa