Swiss to Add Beijing Connection

Swiss International Air Lines is to launch a new service between Zurich and the Chinese capital Beijing from February next year. The carrier will also upgrade capacity in the North Atlantic market using a larger aircraft on its Zurich – Newark route, while a new route will begin from Geneva to Nice and frequency increases will take place to three destinations from the Swiss city.

The new daily Zurich – Beijing link will be inaugurated on February 11, 2012 and will mark the airline’s return to a market it last served in June 2003. It upgraded its six times weekly service to Shanghai Pu Dong (a route that was added in May 2008) to a daily schedule earlier this year and has been serving Hong Kong since its formation following the demise of Swissair almost 20 years ago.

“I am delighted that, as the airline of Switzerland, we can meet the needs of Swiss business and further expand our non-stop services to and from the growing Chinese market,” said Harry Hohmeister, Chief Executive Officer, Swiss International Air Lines. “At the same time, we are also seeing a growing demand for tourist travel in both directions.”

An estimated 6.94 million O&D passengers travelled between Switzerland and China, the eighth largest market between the Asian country and Europe, accounting for 3.29 per cent of the total traffic. However, it was the second fastest growing of the top ten countries with estimated passenger numbers increasing by 25.4 per cent in the last 12 months against a market average of 20.1 per cent. France was the only country to witness a greater increase with traffic increasing by 29.5 per cent during the same period (see table below).

Swiss will compete directly with Hainan Airlines on the route, the latter offering a three times weekly flight using an Airbus A330-200 which was only inaugurated on May 31 this year. The Swiss carrier actually does serve Beijing currently as a seasonal destination although the weekly flight is operated by its subsidiary Edelweiss Air and is mainly targeting the leisure market. Swiss plans to use an Airbus A340-300 on its own flights which will operate overnight to China and return during daylight hours. An estimated 45,000 O&D passengers travelled between Zurich and Beijing last year.

Alongside the Asian expansion, Swiss is to significantly increase capacity between Zurich and Newark Liberty International by taking full operational control of the route. This is currently flown by PrivatAir six times weekly using a Boeing 737. However, from March 31, 2012 Swiss will introduce a three-class Airbus A340-300, at the same time boosting frequencies to a daily schedule. The route is also served by Star Alliance partner United Airlines which offers a daily link using a Boeing 767-300ER.

An estimated 78,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two destinations in the past year, down 5.4 per cent on the previous 12 month period. Swiss has seen its share of the traffic slip from 30 to 24 per cent but its yield has strengthened by a sixth to $1,928 each way.

Further growth will also take place at Geneva, but in the short-haul market. A twice daily link to Nice will be introduced from February 10, 2012 although a third daily flight will be added from the start of the Northern Summer schedules at the end of March 2012. This is a route already served up to four times daily by low-cost carrier easyJet and twice every weekday by regional operator flybaboo. Around 315,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route last year and Swiss’ arrival will likely impact the dominance of easyJet which currently has a 74 per cent share of the market.

Ahead of this Swiss will add a fifth daily flight from Geneva to London City from October 31 and a second daily service to Madrid from December 16. A third daily rotation will also be introduced on the Geneva – Madrid link from February 10, 2012, although to partly accommodate these new flights Swiss’ existing services to Budapest will be suspended from the start of the Northern Winter schedules at the end of October.

The network changes were announced as Swiss announced its financial results for the first six months of the year. The airline posted an operating profit of CHF 129 million, up from CHF 61 million for the same period last year, while total income from operational activities amounted to CHF 2.406 billion, a seven per cent increase on the previous year. During the period the airline carried 7.37 million passengers, up from 6.64 million in the first six months of 2010, although its performance last year was severely impacted by the airspace closures following the volcanic eruption in Iceland.