SWISS retains its extensive route network in the winter schedules

SWISS will be keeping its route network at its present extent in the coming 2008/09 winter schedules, and is even adding further frequencies on certain routes. The airline is also realigning its services to a few destinations in response to changed demand. Through its collaboration with Edelweiss Air, SWISS can further offer its customers substantially more flights to popular vacation destinations. The carrier will fly to 76 points in 42 countries in the new winter schedules, which enter into effect on October 26. A further 27 destinations will be served by flights operated by partner air carriers under codeshare agreements.

On its intercontinental network, SWISS is increasing capacity on the Zurich-Dubai-Muscat route: the service will be operated using Airbus A340 equipment from December 15 onwards. The SWISS intercontinental network remains unchanged for the winter timetable period at 28 destinations in 20 countries.

European expansion in response to demand

On the European front, SWISS will be adding a further daily frequency on the Zurich-London City route. Customers will thus be able to choose from nine daily flights to the conveniently central City Airport. The expansion should further cement SWISS’s position in this key business-travel market.

Service to Valencia will switch from Geneva to Zurich in the new schedules in response to changed demand. The new Zurich-Valencia route will have four weekly flights. SWISS will also be adding frequencies on the Zurich-Istanbul route, whose 11 weekly flights will become a twice-daily service.
Services between Zurich and Stockholm will undergo seasonal expansion during the winter timetable period. The route will see one further flight each on Saturdays and Sundays between Christmas 2008 and Easter 2009.

SWISS’s Geneva-based network sees the addition of a four-times-weekly service to Budapest in the new winter schedules. The flights will be operated using Airbus A319 equipment. Customers in the Geneva region will also enjoy additional flights to Manchester – one each on Saturdays and Sundays – in the Christmas-to-Easter period.

SWISS services from Basel remain unchanged for the 2008/09 winter schedules. Basel-based customers can continue to choose from 14 destinations, with flights to four of them operated by codeshare partners Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines.

Much-enlarged network through Edelweiss Air partnership

The integration of Edelweiss Air has enabled SWISS to substantially expand its route network, raising the number of SWISS destinations served by its codeshare partners from 12 to 27. SWISS customers can book seats on Edelweiss Air flights to nine countries from the start of the winter timetable period.

Once again, SWISS will be collaborating with various wet-lease partners in its winter schedules. Helvetic Airways will provide its own Fokker 100 aircraft and crews to operate the thrice-daily services between Zurich and Budapest, Birmingham and Prague on SWISS’s behalf. Contact Air, a long-standing regional partner of Lufthansa that became a SWISS wet-lease partner last summer, will be operating SWISS’s services from Zurich to Stuttgart, Venice and Warsaw, also with Fokker 100s. Darwin Airline will continue to operate SWISS’s Zurich-Lugano flights. And the daily service to Newark, operated by PrivatAir on SWISS’s behalf, will continue to be offered in the winter schedules.

In addition to the above, an Airbus A330-300 of Star Alliance partner Air Canada will be used to operate SWISS’s services between Zurich and Montreal from October 26 to December 15, when the route will revert to SWISS’s own operation.

The new winter schedules begin on October 26 and will remain in effect until March 28, 2009. All the new timetable details are available on SWISS.COM.