Swiss has outlined its plans for operations over the coming winter period, with schedules “substantially downwardly revised” in view of “the numerous current travel restrictions and quarantine provisions”.
The Lufthansa Group carrier had previously planned to operate at around 50 per cent of 2019 winter levels, but now says that capacity will be between 30 to 40 per cent.
“As a result of the current pandemic’s global development and the associated travel restrictions and quarantine provisions instead of effective corona test procedures, the schedules we have devised for the coming winter timetable period are well below our original expectations,” said Swiss’ chief commercial officer Tamur Goudarzi Pour.
On a positive note Swiss says it will serve around 85 per cent of its destinations this winter – 67 from Zurich and 21 from Geneva.
Flights to Boston will resume this month, initially as a twice weekly service, rising to thrice weekly from March 2021, alongside existing services from Zurich to New York’s Newark and JFK, as well as Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The carrier will also restart services to Johannesburg this month, and will increase frequencies between Zurich and Dubai from the end of October.
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam will not be served this winter, and flights to Delhi, Miami and LA are expected to resume in March 2021.
Swiss also plans to add the following routes from Zurich over the coming months:
- Munich and Wroclaw (end of October)
- Luxembourg, Birmingham, London City and Nuremberg (February 2021)
- Graz (March 2021)
Frequencies to Palma de Mallorca, Bilbao, Sylt, Naples and Thessaloniki will also be increased over the Christmas period, “which traditionally sees high leisure travel volumes”.
From Geneva the following resumptions are planned:
- Pristina (beginning of October)
- Marrakech (mid-October)
- Prague (end of October)
- Moscow (beginning of November)
- Malaga, Valencia, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Dublin, Hurghada, Kittilä, St Petersburg and London Gatwick (mid-December)
- London City (February 2021)
Swiss said that “Further adjustments may also be required, depending primarily on future global developments on the quarantine”, and added that it “continues to advocate the adoption of rapid-result Covid-19 testing capabilities, to make travel a viable option again and ensure international mobility”.
