Supply will average just 37 percent of 2019 levels. Significant expansion will only come from June.
The new aircraft is also only about half as loud for the human hearing. The fuel consumption has been reduced by 20 percent and thus also the CO2 emissions.
The Lufthansa subsidiary and AUA sister Swiss is still not getting out of the depths in view of the difficulties in traveling. So the plans for the flights in the second quarter have to be trimmed. As a result of the ongoing travel restrictions, a notable return of travel activity can be expected in midsummer at the earliest, said Swiss on Thursday. In the second quarter in particular, the flight program will therefore be significantly smaller than originally planned.
Specifically, the offer in the second quarter will average about 37 percent of the level of 2019, a Swiss spokeswoman told the AWP news agency. Nevertheless, this corresponds to more than doubling compared to the first quarter. Especially towards the end of the second quarter, the range is to be expanded significantly.
Focus on leisure and visiting travel
According to the summer flight schedule, which will apply from March 28, Swiss serves 85 destinations from Zurich and 43 destinations from Geneva. The focus will be on leisure and visitor travel, as only a slow recovery in business travel is expected. In the course of the third quarter, the company plans to increase capacity again to around 65 percent of the 2019 level.
True to the focus on tourist traffic, Swiss will now fly from Zurich to Tallinn from June and to Billund in Denmark from July, twice a week. From Geneva, the airline will be offering three new European destinations from mid-July and early July, namely Split, Santorini and Funchal on Madeira.
From the end of March, various European and intercontinental routes will also be included again in the program, for example to Miami. The US cities of Boston and Los Angeles will be added from May.
Free rebooking until the end of May
In addition, Swiss wants to expand the range of flights to particularly popular destinations such as Barcelona, Hamburg, Athens and Copenhagen. The airline plans to fly to Berlin alone up to six times a day.
All tickets can be rebooked any number of times and free of charge until the end of May. You can then change your booking again free of charge.
In 2019, Swiss flew to more than 100 destinations from Zurich. It carried 19 million passengers with around 90 planes.
