British Airways and SWISS formally seal collaboration

As announced in their Memorandum of Understanding of September 22, British Airways and Swiss International Air Lines formally signed their new bilateral cooperation agreement yesterday.

 The strategic alliance between the two airlines will see the provision of codeshare services, a joint frequent flyer programme, and the provision by British Airways of a CHF 50 million guarantee for SWISS.

In an initial step, British Airways and SWISS will be operating all their services between Switzerland (i.e. Zurich, Basel and Geneva) and London Heathrow as a shared operation involving codeshare flights. The codeshare arrangement should then be extended to all services between Switzerland and the UK from the beginning of 2004. The first codeshare flights between Zurich/Geneva/Basel and London Heathrow will be operated on Sunday, October 26.

The Swiss TravelClub, SWISS’s current frequent flyer programme, will be gradually integrated into Executive Club, the frequent flyer programme of British Airways.