SWISS enhances services to Cameroon

The SWISS long-haul route network will see a further innovation this summer. Douala will receive non-stop service to and from Zurich three times a week. Yaoundé will also enjoy a thrice-weekly service, via Douala. The revised and expanded flight pattern will substantially enhance SWISS services to Cameroon. While the new operation means the withdrawal of the present intermediate stop in Malabo, service will continue to be offered to Malabo on Lufthansa via Frankfurt. The 2008 summer schedules will also bring a new collaboration between SWISS and Contact Air, which will provide two Fokker 100 aircraft to join those already operated under a wet-lease agreement with Helvetic Airways. The new transports will be used on SWISS’s Zurich-based services to Warsaw, Venice and Stuttgart.

SWISS will offer its customers thrice-weekly non-stop service between Zurich and Douala from the start of the 2008 summer schedules. Douala has so far been served twice a week on a routing via Malabo; this intermediate landing is now being withdrawn. Service will also be enhanced on the Zurich-Yaoundé route, where the present weekly flight will be increased to three weekly frequencies, routed via Douala.
The new expanded services are a direct response to growing customer demand for more frequencies to Cameroon, and should substantially raise SWISS’s local market profile. Customers wishing to travel to Malabo will still be able to do so: Lufthansa will be offering three weekly services between Frankfurt and the capital of Equatorial Guinea from April 1 onwards, with convenient connecting flights to and from its Frankfurt hub. Lufthansa will also offer a weekly service to Luanda, Angola in its summer schedules. So all in all, the new service patterns should strengthen the Lufthansa Group’s presence and position in the African air travel market.

A new wet-lease partner

Contact Air, a regional Lufthansa partner, will assume operating responsibility for SWISS’s Zurich-Warsaw (thrice daily), Zurich-Venice (thrice daily) and Zurich-Stuttgart (six times weekly) services from April 1. The services will be operated using two Fokker 100 aircraft. The Fokker 100 has a capacity of 100 passengers. In Contact Air, SWISS has secured the services of an experienced partner to expand its present wet-lease arrangements. Wet-lease partner Helvetic Airways will be deploying three Fokker 100s on SWISS’s behalf in the 2008 summer schedules on services between Zurich and Budapest (thrice daily), Manchester (thrice daily), Birmingham (twice daily) and Brussels (one daily). And UK-based Flightline will be operating SWISS’s thrice-daily service between Zurich and Prague in the 2008 summer schedules under a further wet-lease agreement.

The innovations in brief

Intercontinental services

European services

SWISS flights operated by Contact Air

SWISS flights operated by Helvetic Airways

SWISS flights operated by Flightline