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Reopening of the United StatesDirect flights to New York resume
Swiss announces the resumption of the connection from Geneva in mid-December. But only on certain days.
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- Pierre-Alexandre Sallier
The flight between Geneva and New York was operated, before the pandemic, with an Airbus A330-300.
TRAPEZOID
On the occasion of the presentation of their winter schedule, Swiss International Air Lines announced this Tuesday morning the resumption of direct flights between Geneva and New York from 14 December. The carrier plans “up to four flights a week” — up from one a day previously — to JFK, New York’s main airport.
The only long-haul route operated by Cointrin from the former national carrier – now a subsidiary of Lufthansa – has been suspended since March 2020. For good reason. US airports have been closed for twenty months to any passenger from the Schengen Area who makes a “non-essential” trip – with the exception of US citizens, holders of “green card” type residence permits or even employees locals.
Twenty months off
This closure applied to travelers from all over the European Union. Last June, several European companies had thus asked for the reopening of the transatlantic sky, while the G7 summit was starting in the United Kingdom. While some of the flights were never aborted, unlike Geneva-New York, they were often half-empty. While they are usually among the most profitable.
The situation changed last Monday. Washington has announced that travelers from Europe will be able to return to the country from “early November”. So long as who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and who tested negative within three days of departure. “We had already worked on the resumption of this line before the announcement made by the US government”, indicates one inside the company.
This reopening of the American borders to “non-essential” travel from November will obviously also apply to the direct flight between Geneva and Newark, another New York airport, operated by United Airlines.
Drastic renovation
Unveiling its destinations for the winter season on Tuesday, Swiss indicated that the choice would be “as wide as before the pandemic”. However, the frequencies will be lower. The company with the white cross therefore plans to offer no more than half of the capacities offered in 2019 in its winter programme.
Swiss is completing a drastic restructuring program that will have cut almost 1,700 jobs out of 9,000 by the end of the year. “In 2019, our activities in Geneva recorded black numbers, the objective obviously remains to return to this situation”, said last month on these columns the boss of Swiss, Dieter Vranckx. The latter then explained that Cointrin would be proportionally affected by the restructuring plan, with “between one and two fewer aircraft deployed” on the Geneva runway.
