SWISS to further expand Basel-based network

A year after expanding its non-stop services from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg from four to ten destinations, SWISS has reported positive results from the enlarged network and plans to further increase the services available to its EuroAirport-based customers.

From March 30, SWISS will offer new non-stop service between Basel and Belgrade and operate additional frequencies on its existing Basel-Prague and Basel-Brussels routes.

It was on January 15, 2007 that SWISS expanded its non-stop network from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg from four to ten destinations. The new services represented a 23% increase in flights to 59 departures a week, which was further raised to 61 with the 2007 summer schedules.

The additional capacity has been fully absorbed by the market: SWISS carried over 330 000 passengers to and from Basel in the last twelve months, almost twice as many as the previous year, and substantially raised its local market share from 5% to its present level of around 10%. Together with its Star Alliance partners, SWISS currently offers some 150 departures from the EuroAirport a week.

“We are delighted at the way demand has been developing at the EuroAirport,” says Harry Hohmeister, Chief Network & Distribution Officer at SWISS. “The load factors we are presently seeing on our flights not only show how much potential the airport and its trinational catchment area offer; they also confirm the rightness of our EuroAirport business model.”

New service to Belgrade
SWISS will be further expanding its network of services from the EuroAirport from the start of the 2008 timetable period with the addition of a twice-weekly non-stop service to Belgrade. The Saturday and Sunday flights to and from the Serbian capital should prove particularly popular among leisure travellers.

Attractive connections with Eastern Europe
With a total of 16 weekly services to Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and now Belgrade, SWISS offers excellent connections between the Basel region and Eastern Europe. And with demand still strong for flights to and from these booming markets, SWISS will increase its Basel-Prague operations from the present five times a week to a daily service with the start of the 2008 summer schedules.

In a further expansion of the existing network, the present twice-daily weekday service between Basel and Brussels will see the addition of a Sunday evening flight. The new service should meet a tangible customer demand among business travellers, tourists and commuters alike. The service already suspended between Basel and Nice will not be reinstated for the summer schedules.

SWISS celebrates with its customers
It is to its customers that SWISS owes the success of its recent Basel expansion. And, as a token of its appreciation of the patronage they have provided, SWISS is opening its EuroAirport lounge today to all SWISS customers travelling from the airport.

The anniversary of the expanded EuroAirport network is also being marked today by the début of a Basel tram that has been given a special livery to underline SWISS’s role as the “Airline For All Fans” for this summer’s European football championships, which will be held in Switzerland and Austria. For the next six months, this “SWISS Soccer Tram” will sport its special design, which includes photos of SWISS employees decked out in the colours of their national teams, on the city’s No.15 route.

The SWISS Soccer Tram was formally welcomed to Basel’s streets at the city’s Aeschenplatz this afternoon at a ceremony attended by Government Councillor Ralph Lewin, SWISS Vice President Paul Kurrus and SWISS Marketing Coordinator RegioTriRhena Manuel Meier, together with various media representatives. The special tram will remain in service in its unique colour scheme until after the European football championships.

Round-trip SWISS non-stop flights from the EuroAirport are available for as little as CHF 99 including all taxes and fees and all SWISS services*.

Find out more at SWISS.com.

* inflight food and drink, free check-in, free baggage transport up to specified limits plus the opportunity to earn Miles & More miles