Alex McWhirter looks at how new services can benefit business travellers
London to Geneva
Swiss has made a welcome return to the prime Heathrow-Geneva route after an absence of several years. At the beginning of the year it relaunched a much-missed service linking the two cities operated by A320s.
Passengers using Heathrow are the winners here. There are more flights and more seats overall, so there are benefits in terms of choice and better pricing. But the interesting story is why Swiss quit such an important link – one linking major airports at two of the world’s wealthiest cities – in the first place? And how its new owner, Lufthansa, has enabled it to regain the route?
It may seem strange today but back in 2003, Swiss was poised to join the Oneworld alliance. However, under its previous owners, the airline was struggling financially, and alliances want prospective members to be solvent. So according to industry publication Flight International, Swiss sold its Heathrow-Geneva slots to British Airways for the not inconsiderable sum of SFr 50 million (£30 million). The idea was to raise cash to ease Swiss’s membership of Oneworld.
BA took over the Swiss slots and operates the flights itself using a joint BA/LX flight code (LX is the International Air Transport Association designator for Swiss). But in the end, Oneworld membership never happened. BA then retained the slots, leaving Swiss with no option but to transfer its Geneva flights to London City (LCY).
That’s all history today. Swiss is back, albeit with flights operated in conjunction with Bmi. How has it got the slots? Lufthansa also owns Bmi, so, in fact Swiss, is using some of the latter’s surplus slots.
What’s on offer?
Swiss operates six flights a day ideally timed for both business and leisure travellers. But one thing to remember is that, although these six flights carry only LX flight codes, their operation is shared 50-50 between Swiss and Bmi. Unusually, there is no codesharing. It means that when booking through the Swiss website (swiss.com) the operating carrier is not shown in a transparent fashion. Travellers must click on the LX flight number to ascertain the operating carrier. To make it simple, here are details of which carrier operates which flight:
Heathrow-Geneva
Swiss-operated: LX353 at 0855; LX355 at 1400; LX357 at 1930
Bmi-operated: LX359 at 0700; LX351 at 1130; LX349 at 1715
Geneva-Heathrow
Swiss-operated: LX352 at 0730; LX354 at 1215; LX356 at 1755
Bmi-operated: LX350 at 1015; LX348 at 1515; LX358 at 2035
The competition
Out of Heathrow there is one rival – BA. It offers eight flights a day. From LCY there are up to four Swiss services a day. These compete with independent Swiss airline Baboo, which operates up to twice daily with one-class turbo-prop aircraft. Low-cost competition comes from Easyjet, which has five departures a day from Gatwick and two from Luton.
Prices
Fares from Heathrow are keen because of the extra capacity. This summer there are 14 flights a day to Geneva compared with eight this time last year. Although Swiss has cut two flights from London City, from six to four, it still operates an additional four services.
Lead-in prices for BA are £316 for business and £114 for economy class. With Swiss, either from Heathrow or LCY, prices start from £268 for business and £101 for economy class. Baboo charges from £79 but bear in mind its smaller planes offer fewer low-fare seats so book well ahead for the cheapest rates. Easyjet’s return fares start at £42 but you have to include various extras. For example, taking a checked bag adds a further £18 to the price of a round-trip when booked online (the cost is higher at the airport).
