A sizeable long-haul network thanks to still-strong cargo demand
SWISS will be restoring several more destinations to its flight schedules from Zurich and Geneva in the coming 2020/21 winter timetable period.
Some 85% of the airline’s previous route network will now receive SWISS service.
In view of the numerous current travel restrictions and quarantine provisions, however, the new schedules will offer only 30% to (at the most) 40% of the capacities provided for the same period last year.
SWISS’s initially planned 2020/21 winter schedules have had to be substantially revised, and the capacity levels originally envisaged for October will now only be achieved towards the end of the coming winter period.
Further adjustments may also be required, depending primarily on future global developments on the quarantine front. SWISS continues to advocate the adoption of rapid-result COVID-19 testing capabilities, to make travel a viable option again and ensure international mobility.
“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,” conceded SWISS Chief Commercial Officer Tamur Goudarzi Pour.
A sizeable long-haul network thanks to still-strong cargo demand.
On the long-haul front, SWISS will resume scheduled service to Boston (US) from October onwards. The route will initially receive twice-weekly service, rising to thrice-weekly from March 2021.
Johannesburg (South Africa) will also see SWISS services restored with three weekly frequencies. SWISS will further provide three weekly flights on the Zurich-Dubai (UAE) route from the end of October, which should rise to at least five weekly services in the medium term.
Muscat will in future be served non-stop from Zurich with an Edelweiss flight. SWISS also plans to perform three weekly flights each to Los Angeles and Miami in the USA and to Delhi in India from March 2021.
Service will be continued on the existing long-haul routes between Zurich and Newark, New York JFK, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
SWISS is primarily able to offer such a range of long-haul services thanks to the continuing strong demand for cargo transportation on the routes concerned.
The African destinations of Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) will not be served in Winter 2020/21.
