25.10.2005

From Athens to Zurich: 69 points in new winter schedules

Swiss International Air Lines serves 69 destinations around the world in its new winter timetable – 42 within Europe and 27 in its intercontinental network. A further 15 points are served non-stop from Switzerland in collaboration with codeshare partners. The new schedules also see Lufthansa and SWISS harmonising their services between Switzerland and Germany to offer customers more and better connections. The new winter timetable enters effect on October 30 and remains in force until March 25, 2006.

Customers have an attractive range of destinations to choose from in SWISS’s 2005/06 winter schedules. SWISS itself provides direct service to 42 destinations in 22 countries in Europe and another 27 points in 19 countries overseas. With a further intensification of the collaboration between SWISS and Lufthansa, the new schedules also offer travellers many new options: all SWISS and Lufthansa services between Switzerland and Germany will now be operated on a codeshare basis; and these services have also been harmonised to offer more flights and better connections via the Zurich, Frankfurt and Munich hubs, where the partners will now use the same terminals and check-in facilities.

European services
In terms of destinations served, the SWISS European network remains largely unchanged. Services from Zurich are extended to Venice and withdrawn from Alicante; services from Geneva see the addition of Lisbon (under a codeshare agreement with TAP Portugal) and the removal of Rome ; and the revised SWISS network from Basel now extends to Zurich, London City, Brussels and Amsterdam.

The number of European destinations served directly by SWISS thus stands at 41 for Zurich, four for Basel and seven for Geneva.

Intercontinental services
SWISS continues to serve 27 intercontinental destinations directly from Zurich and Geneva.

Joint flights with Lufthansa
The start of the winter timetable sees SWISS and Lufthansa harmonising services between their two home countries. All flights between Switzerland and Germany will now be operated on a codeshare basis, with the schedules closely coordinated to offer passengers more and better connections. The two partners will provide more than 80 flights daily between the two countries; and this joint programme will be supplemented by onward codeshare services from Frankfurt and Munich to Bremen, Leipzig, Cologne-Bonn, Krakow, Gdansk, Sofia, Riga and Los Angeles.

Codeshare services
SWISS is also expanding its own route network through numerous codeshare services operated by partner carriers. This arrangement adds no fewer than 15 further destinations which can be reached directly from Switzerland. Other codeshare flights – such as to Vienna with Austrian Airlines and to Lisbon with TAP Portugal – will supplement SWISS’s own services on the routes concerned.

Codeshare partners offer flights from Zurich to another eight destinations in Europe. And intercontinental codeshare destinations Dallas and Kuala Lumpur are joined by Washington (operated by United Airlines), Doha (operated by Qatar Airways) and Toronto and Delhi (operated by Air Canada).

From Geneva, the addition of services to Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Porto and Vienna brings to eleven the number of European destinations available under codeshares with partner airlines. And from Basel, a further five destinations in Germany, Austria and Spain can be reached on codeshare services operated by partner carriers.

Baggage
The new winter schedules also bring a modification to the maximum permitted weight of passengers’ carry-on baggage. In future, the total hand baggage carried on board may not weigh more than eight kilos per passenger.

The timetable
A total of 200 000 copies are being printed of SWISS’s four-language winter timetable. The timetable is available at travel agencies and all SWISS sales offices. It can also be accessed online at the swiss.com website; and it can be conveniently downloaded onto a PC, laptop or PDA and kept current via monthly updates.


SWISS Corporate Communications