Swiss International Air Lines will keep Switzerland globally connected for winter 2020/21, despite strict quarantine provisions, with the resumption of service to more destinations from Zurich and Geneva.
On Tuesday (September 29, 2020), Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) announced that despite strict quarantine measures, the carrier will resume service to more destinations from Zurich and Geneva in their winter 2020/21 schedule. With the added flights, SWISS will operate around 85 percent of their pre-pandemic route network. However, due to continued travel restrictions, the carrier will operate only 30-40 percent of their capacity compared to last year. SWISS’s original winter schedule has been revised downward and the carrier doesn’t expect to achieve their planned October capacity levels until the end of the winter season. In Tuesday’s announcement, SWISS’ Chief Commercial Officer, Tamur Goudarzi Pour, said,
“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.”
SWISS now plans to offer 67 destinations from Zurich and 21 from Geneva in their winter timetable. The carrier will continue to operate a sizable long-haul network due to strong cargo demand. From October, SWISS will resume twice-weekly service to Boston which will increase to thrice-weekly from March 2021 onwards. The carrier will also restore service to Johannesburg with three weekly flights and their Zurich-Dubai route will operate three times weekly from the end of October, increasing to five-times weekly in the medium term. SWISS will further launch Zurich-Muscat service which will be operated by Edelweiss as well as three weekly flights each to Los Angeles, Miami and Delhi from March 2021.
The carrier will also continue existing long-haul service between Zurich and New York (Newark & JFK), Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. SWISS will not serve Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) in their winter 2020/21 schedule.
Although uncertainties remain regarding travel restrictions, the carrier plans on adding short-haul service from Zurich to Munich and Wroclaw by the end of October. From February 2021, SWISS will add flights to Luxembourg, Birmingham, London City and Nuremburg, with service to Graz resuming in March 2021. For the Christmas holiday period, the airline will also add service to popular leisure destinations including Palm de Mallorca, Bilbao, Sylt, Naples and Thessaloniki.
During October, SWISS will add service between Geneva and Priština, Marrakesh and Prague, while service to Moscow will resume at the beginning of November. From mid-December, the carrier’s Geneva network will expand with service to Malaga, Valencia, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Dublin, Hurghada, Kittilä, St. Petersburg and London-Gatwick. SWISS will restore nonstop service on their Geneva-London City route in February 2021 and the carrier will offer numerous frequencies to London-Heathrow, Frankfurt and Moscow. The airline’s winter 2020/21 schedule will be effective October 25, 2020. Swiss International Air Lines continues to advocate for the adoption of rapid COVID-19 testing to restore confidence in international air travel.
Source: Swiss International Air Lines
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