While travel restrictions still pose a challenge for the aviation and tourism sectors, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) announced today it will resume a wide range of services in its upcoming winter 2021/2022 schedule. According to SWISS CCO Tamur Goudarzi Pour, “We have crafted our schedule for the coming winter timetable period to give our customers the widest possible range of air services and connections while still maintaining a robust and reliable route network.
“Of the 92 aircraft that make up the SWISS fleet, our winter schedules will see us operating up to 47 short-haul flights, plus four aircraft of our wet-lease partner Helvetic Airways, along with 22 long-haul aircraft.”
With 90 destinations served from Zurich and/or Geneva, the carrier’s winter schedule aims to be as extensive as it was in winter 2019, though with fewer frequencies. Overall, SWISS plans to resume around 50% of the capacity provided in 2019 in its upcoming winter schedule.
The company’s new winter schedule includes 60 short-haul and 21 long-haul routes from Zurich, mainly to Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Malaga, Stockholm, Kyiv, and Belgrade. As for long-haul routes, the schedule includes key destinations as Chicago, Miami, New York, São Paulo, Dubai, Johannesburg, and Tel Aviv.
The new winter schedule also includes various classic sunny destinations, like Alicante, Malta, Marseille, Palermo, and Thessaloniki, alongside Eastern European destinations such as Sarajevo and Tallinn, and Tirana, for which SWISS took over service this summer from its sister carrier Edelweiss.
As for Geneva, 25 European destinations are included in the new winter schedule, with the most frequent flights to Athens, Lisbon, and Porto. In addition, travelers from Geneva will also enjoy several destinations which have previously received only summer services, including Madeira, Sharm El Sheikh, and Tenerife.
SWISS also plans to resume its long-haul services between Geneva and New York from mid-December, with up to four weekly flights.
The winter timetable period will run from October 31, 2021, to March 27, 2022. For better plannability, the new winter schedule will be published in two steps: All flights up to (and including) January 16, 2022, are published today, September 22, while the definitive schedule for mid-January to the end of March 2022 will be published in October. This will have a more stabilizing effect on the upcoming schedule in case of flight cancellations. In case of canceled flights, passengers may rebook free of charge or have their tickets fully refunded.
