Swiss International Air Lines

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Swiss International Air Lines
IATA
LX		 ICAO
SWR		 Callsign
SWISS
Founded 2001 after bankruptcy of Swissair
Hubs Zurich International Airport
Focus cities Geneva Cointrin International Airport, EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg
Frequent flyer program Miles & More
Member lounge Swiss Lounge
Alliance Star Alliance
Fleet size 73(17 on order)
Destinations 71
Parent company Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Headquarters Basel, Switzerland
Key people Dr. Christoph Franz (President and CEO)
Website: http://www.swiss.com

Swiss International Air Lines (short: Swiss) is the principal airline of Switzerland operating scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Its main hub is Zurich Kloten Airport (ZRH).

Swiss International Air Lines uses the IATA Code LX, which it inherited from the Swiss regional airline Crossair (Swissair's code was SR). The ICAO code is SWR, inherited from Swissair (Crossair's was CRX), in order to keep international traffic rights.

Swiss is a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa.

Contents

The airline was formed after the 2001 bankruptcy of Swissair, Switzerland's former flag carrier. The failed airline's biggest creditors, Credit Suisse and UBS, arranged to sell part of Swissair's assets to Crossair, the regional counterpart to the transatlantic Swissair (both Swissair and Crossair were under the same holding company, called SAirGroup). Crossair later changed its name to Swiss, and the new national airline started its operations officially on March 31, 2002. The airline was first owned by institutional investors (61.3%), Swiss Confederation (20.3%), cantons and communities (12.2%) and others (6.2%). Swiss also owns subsidiary companies Swiss Sun (100%) and Crossair Europe (99.9%). Employees total 5970.[citation needed]

Swiss Airbus A340 at Narita Airport, Japan
Swiss Airbus A340 at Narita Airport, Japan

After almost a year of disputes, Swiss was finally accepted into the Oneworld airline alliance, after having been blocked by British Airways, with which Swiss competes on many long-haul routes. On June 3, 2004, Swiss announced its decision not to join Oneworld because they did not want to integrate their current frequent flyer program into British Airways' Executive Club.

On 22 March 2005 Lufthansa confirmed its plan to take over Swiss, starting with a minority stake (11%) of a new company set up to hold Swiss shares called Air Trust. The takeover is expected to be completed by 2007 and will see the Swiss operations gradually integrated with Lufthansa from late 2005. Swiss joined Star Alliance on 1 April 2006, when it also became a member of Lufthansa's Miles & More frequent flyer program.

The airline has set up a regional airline subsidiary called Swiss European Air Lines. This carrier has its own air operator's certificate and operates a non-Airbus fleet. The two independently operating divisions Swiss AviationTraining and Swiss WorldCargo (belly capacity of passenger planes) are also owned by Swiss.

Main article: Swiss International Air Lines destinations

Following the addition of 2 Airbus A330 to the fleet from the end of 2006, Swiss is planning to increase long haul service as follows:[citation needed]

Airbus A321-100
Airbus A321-100

Following the addition of 3 Airbus A340 to the fleet starting in the middle of 2007, Swiss is planning to increase long haul service as follows:

Also, new routes to be launched:

  • Zürich - New Delhi - Will be a daily service operated by airbus A330-200 aircraft
  • Zürich - Shanghai - Will be a daily service operated by airbus A340 aircraft

The airline announced a major expansion at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in an attempt to win back market share from budget airlines using the airport. On January 14, 2007 services were launched to Barcelona, Budapest, Manchester, Nice, Prague and Warsaw, in addition to existing services to Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Zurich[1].

On September 19, 2007 SWISS announced a further expansion of its network with the following routes and destinations:

  • Zürich - Berlin - increasing from 3 to 4 daily rotations (begins October 28, 2007)
  • Zürich - Florence - Will be 3 daily services operated by Airbus 320 aircraft (begins March 2008)
  • Zürich - Sofia - Will be a daily service operated by Airbus A320 aircraft (begins March 2008)
  • Zürich - Saint Petersburg - Will be a daily service operated by Airbus A320 aircraft (begins March 2008)
  • Geneva - Manchester - Will be a weekly service (begins December 16, 2007)
  • Geneva - Bucharest - Will be 3 weekly services (begins March 2008)
Airbus A320-200
Airbus A320-200

Aside from codeshares with Star Alliance partners, Swiss codeshares with the following carriers:

  • Adria Airways - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Ljubljana flights.
  • Air Canada - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Toronto flights. Connecting flights via Toronto/Montreal to Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa, Quebec.
  • Air France - Codeshare agreement on Geneva–Paris Charles de Gaulle flights.
  • Air One - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Napoli and Catania flights.
  • Air India - Codeshare agreement on Zurich-Mumbai & Zurich-Delhi flights.
  • All Nippon Airways - Codeshare agreement on SWISS Zurich–Tokyo flights.
  • Austrian Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Austria.
  • Blue1 - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Helsinki flights.
  • Brussels Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Belgium.
  • Cirrus Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Dresden and Zurich–Salzburg flights.
  • Croatia Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Zagreb flights.
  • Darwin Airline - Operates flights Zurich–Lugano on behalf of SWISS.
  • Egyptair - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Egypt.
  • El Al - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Tel Aviv and Geneva–Tel Aviv flights.
  • LOT Polish Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Poland.
  • Lufthansa - On several flights between Germany and Switzerland and on selected European and intercontinental connections.
  • Malaysia Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Kuala Lumpur flights.
  • PrivatAir - PrivatAir operates on behalf of Swiss on all flights between Zurich International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in an all-business class Boeing 737-BBJ 56-seat configuration.
  • Qatar Airways - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Doha flights.
  • Scandinavian Airlines System - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Sweden, Denmark, Norway and selected beyond routes via Copenhagen gateway.
  • South African Airways - Codeshare agreement on connecting flights via Johannesburg to Cape Town, Durban and Windhoek.
  • Ukraine International Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich-Kiev flights.
  • Spanair - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Spain.
  • TAP Portugal - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Portugal.
  • Thai Airways International - Codeshare agreement on all flights between Switzerland and Thailand.
  • United Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all flights between Switzerland and the US and on selected European and US connections.

The Swiss International Air Lines fleet includes the following aircraft (as of September 2007):[1]

Swiss International Air Lines Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers
(First/Business*/Economy)		 Notes
Airbus A319-100 7 110 (75/35)
Airbus A320-200 19 136 (54/72)
Airbus A321-100 6 170 (76/94)
Airbus A330-200 11 230 (48/182)
229 (42/187)
196 (12/42/142)		 [2] 2 are ex-Lufthansa aircraft.
The 2 oldest ones will be replaced with ex-Air Canada Airbus A340-300.
Airbus A330-300 (9 orders) Replacing: Airbus A330-200
Entry into service: 2009
Airbus A340-300 11
(4 orders)		 228 (8/48/172)
Avro RJ100** 20 97 (40/57)
Avro RJ85** 1

*Business Class offered on Airbus A330/A340 aircraft. ** operated by Swiss European Air Lines Ltd.

Airbus A330
Airbus A330
  • The average age of the Swiss International Air Lines fleet is 8 years (2006)
  • The aircraft fleet is to be renamed after local towns and cities over the next two years. The names will be featured on the aircraft fuselage, with cabin interiors showing the coat of arms of the town or city. The latest fleet addition, an Airbus A330, is the first to follow this scheme, as Berne. [3]
  • Six Airbus A340 aircraft are to be added to the fleet. The first of which is an ex-Air Canada plane[2]. Three more ex-Air Canada A340s are to be added along with two ex-Austrian Airlines to increase frequencies on existing routes and to launch new routes for summer 2008.
  • Two Airbus A330 aircraft are also being added to the fleet. The first one will replace an Airbus A300-600 in November 2006 which was leased from Hapag-Lloyd, and the second in mid-December 2006, both to increase route frequencies.
  • The short haul fleet is also expected to expand with plans confirmed in September 2006 to add two Airbus A321 and one Airbus A320 aircraft. [3] To avail the market chances, Swiss added 2 additional Airbus A320 aircraft to their fleet earlier than planned. The aircraft were added in autumn 2007 and were not new-build aircraft, but rather former Swissair aircraft that were leased out for six years.
  • On 20 September 2007, Lufthansa confirmed an order for 41 aircraft. [4] Two of the ordered A320 and the 9 orders for A330 aircraft are intended for Swiss.

Some aircraft formerly used by Swiss have the Chinese character Ruì (瑞), from the Chinese translation of Switzerland, Ruìshì (瑞士), on the tail fin instead of the cross. They are from the former Swissair affiliate Swissair Asia, which was formed to allow for Swissair to serve the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China [3].

Airbus A320, A319 and A330 at Zürich International Airport

Airbus A321

Airbus A340 at Zürich International Airport

  1. ^ Airliner World, February 2007
  2. ^ http://www.aerospacemedia.com/site/afp.php?Id=070820072142.0o58at3b.xml News release
  3. ^ a b Airliner World January 2007
  4. ^ "Lufthansa to order 41 Airbuses including nine A330s for Swiss" Flight Global, 20/09/07


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