SWISS unveils new-look winter schedules

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will fly to 72 destinations in 44 countries under its 2003/04 winter schedules, which come into effect on October 26.

The carrier will provide direct services to all key points in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, while business travellers within Europe who are based near Basel, Geneva and Zurich will continue to enjoy convenient early-morning departures and late-evening returns. SWISS’s 50-seater fleets of Embraer 145 and Saab 2000 aircraft will be operated in a single-cabin configuration from the start of the new schedules. SWISS has been offering air tickets at low prices since the end of August through its new “SWISS in Europe” product.

SWISS announced the broad parameters of its new route network, which will now be adopted with the start of the winter schedules on October 26, back in July. SWISS will continue to provide direct scheduled air services to 72 destinations which are of major importance to Switzerland and the Swiss economy. The new intercontinental network consists of 30 destinations in 22 countries, while the European network extends to 42 points, also in 22 countries. The SWISS network will be further supplemented by the company’s codeshare partners, who will be providing direct services between Switzerland and a further ten destinations.

Intercontinental services

SWISS will offer direct services to 30 intercontinental destinations from Zurich and Geneva. 

In North America: Boston (daily), Chicago (daily), Los Angeles (six times weekly), Miami (daily), New York JFK (daily from Zurich and daily from Geneva), New York Newark (six times weekly) and Montreal (six times weekly).

In South America: São Paulo (daily) and Buenos Aires (five times weekly).

In Asia: Bangkok (daily), Hong Kong (daily), Manila (thrice weekly), Mumbai (daily), Singapore (daily), Tokyo (five times weekly) and Karachi (four times weekly).

In the Middle East: Dubai (daily), Jeddah (thrice weekly), Riyadh (thrice weekly), Muscat (thrice weekly) and Tel Aviv (twice daily).

In Africa: Cairo (five times weekly), Benghazi (twice weekly), Tripoli (thrice weekly), Dar es Salaam (thrice weekly), Douala (twice weekly), Yaounde (weekly), Johannesburg (daily), Malabo (thrice weekly) and Nairobi (three to four times weekly).

Five further destinations can be reached directly from Zurich on services operated by SWISS’s codeshare partners: Dallas/Fort Worth (daily, operated by American Airlines), Kuala Lumpur (thrice weekly, operated by Malaysia Airlines), Colombo (five times weekly, operated by SriLankan Airlines), Sydney (twice daily, operated by Qantas via Bangkok or Frankfurt), and Tunis (twice weekly, operated by Tunis Air). Two further points are served directly by codeshare partners from Geneva: Tunis (thrice weekly, operated by Tunis Air) and Tel Aviv (thrice weekly, operated by El Al).

European services

SWISS will offer 42 direct connections on its European network. Special attention has been paid here to providing early-morning and late-evening services to and from key business travel destinations.

Basel

SWISS will serve 14 points from Basel: London Heathrow (thrice daily), Manchester (twice daily), Birmingham (twice daily), Brussels (thrice daily), Amsterdam (thrice daily), Vienna (thrice daily), Berlin Tempelhof (thrice daily), Hamburg (twice daily), Düsseldorf (thrice daily), Munich (thrice daily), Barcelona (twice daily), Madrid (daily), Rome (daily) and Zurich (daily). Lisbon will be served by a daily codeshare flight operated by Portugalia.

Geneva

SWISS will serve 12 European destinations from Geneva together with its partners. Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona, Brussels, Madrid and Zurich will be provided with several frequencies a day, facilitating day trips to these destinations.

SWISS will operate its own services to Paris Charles de Gaulle (six times daily), London Heathrow (four times daily), Rome (thrice daily), Barcelona (four times daily), Zurich (nine times daily), Athens (daily), Lisbon (daily), Moscow (daily) and Malaga (twice weekly).

Direct flights will also be offered to three further destinations by SWISS’s codeshare partners: Brussels (five times daily, operated by SN Brussels Airlines), Madrid (four times daily, operated by Iberia) and Dublin (thrice weekly, operated by Aer Lingus).

Zurich

Zurich is SWISS’s hub, not only for its intercontinental services but also for its European network. SWISS will serve 40 destinations in Europe from Zurich:

Amsterdam (five times daily), Athens (twice daily), Barcelona (five times daily), Basel (daily), Belgrade (daily), Berlin Tegel (four times daily), Birmingham (thrice daily), Brussels (six times daily), Bucharest (daily), Budapest (twice daily), Copenhagen (thrice daily), Dublin (daily), Düsseldorf (five times daily), Frankfurt (five times daily), Geneva (nine times daily), Hamburg (five times daily), Hanover (four times daily), Istanbul (daily), Lisbon (daily), London City (four times daily), London Heathrow (six times daily), Lugano (four times daily), Luxembourg (twice daily), Madrid (five times daily), Malaga (daily), Manchester (twice daily), Milan (six times daily), Moscow (twice daily), Munich (five times daily), Nice (thrice daily), Nuremberg (four times daily), Palma de Mallorca (daily), Paris Charles de Gaulle (six times daily), Prague (thrice daily), Rome (four times daily), Thessaloniki (daily), Stockholm (thrice daily), Stuttgart (five times daily), Vienna (six times daily) and Warsaw (thrice daily).

Sion, a classic winter destination, will be served by SWISS from December 20 to April 17. The airport will see a weekly Zurich-Sion-London-Sion-Zurich service every Saturday, offering winter tourists from the UK and farther afield a convenient flight – either directly or via Zurich – into the Valais Alps.

A further six destinations can be reached from Zurich on direct flights operated by SWISS’s codeshare partners: Helsinki (twice daily, operated by Finnair), Kiev (five times weekly, operated by Ukraine International Airlines), Skopje (daily, operated by Macedonian Airlines), Graz (twice daily, operated by Styrian Spirit), Linz (twice daily, operated by Air Alps) and Valencia (daily, operated by Iberia).

Lugano

Lugano remains in the SWISS network with four daily flights to and from Zurich.

Codeshares

In addition to the direct connections from Switzerland operated by codeshare partners listed already, all British Airways and SWISS services between Zurich and London Heathrow will be operated as codeshare flights from the start of the winter schedules. This strategic partnership is expected to be expanded further to cover all routes between Switzerland and the UK by early 2004.

In addition to direct service from Switzerland to key partner hubs, SWISS also codeshares extensively beyond those gateways, including:

- on American Airlines, via all of SWISS’s US gateway cities to over 50 points in North and Central America;

- on Iberia, via Madrid and Barcelona, to four destinations in Spain and Portugal: Bilbao, Oporto, Seville and Valencia;

- on Finnair, via Helsinki to five points in Finland: Turku, Tampere, Oulu, Vaasa and Jyvaskyla.