The Swiss airline wants to fly to as many destinations this winter as it did before the pandemic. From Geneva, New York will be part of it again. However, the flight schedule is not final yet.
Swiss wants to fly to a total of 90 destinations from Zurich and Geneva in winter 2021/22. According to the Lufthansa subsidiary, that is just as many as in winter 2019 and thus before the start of the pandemic. However, the frequencies are significantly lower. The capacity will only be around half.
“We have geared our flight plan for the winter to offering our passengers the greatest possible number of connections and connection options as well as a stable, reliable network,” says Swiss Commercial Director Tamur Goudarzi. “From a total of 92 aircraft in the Swiss fleet, up to 47 short-haul aircraft plus four aircraft from the wet lease partner Helvetic Airways will be used with the winter flight schedule.” Swiss uses 22 aircraft on long-haul routes.
From mid-December from Geneva to New York
From Geneva, Swiss will offer 26 destinations, 25 of which are in Europe. The destinations with the most flights include Athens, Lisbon and Porto. There are also destinations that were already served in the summer, such as Madeira, Sharm El-Sheikh and Tenerife. The Danish capital Copenhagen is new to the program. Swiss places a special focus on the winter sports season. The airline therefore promises “an extensive flight program”, especially for passengers departing from Great Britain and Scandinavia.
Swiss Airbus A330 in Geneva. Image: Robert Erenstein
Swiss is also planning to resume the long-haul connection to New York JFK on selected days from mid-December. “From December 14, up to four weekly flights to the Big Apple are planned from Geneva,” the airline said. An Airbus A330-300 is specified in the booking system for the nine-hour flight.
81 destinations planned from Zurich
From Zurich, Swiss passengers have a choice of 81 destinations, 60 short-haul and 21 long-haul destinations. The short-haul destinations most frequently flown to from Zurich include Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Lisbon, London, Málaga, Stockholm and various destinations in Eastern Europe such as Kyiv and Belgrade.
On long-haul routes, the focus is on the metropolises of Chicago, Miami, New York, São Paulo, Dubai, Johannesburg and Tel Aviv. The winter offer also includes classic summer destinations, which are also being offered over the winter this year. These include Alicante, Malta, Marseille, Palermo and Thessaloniki. Sarajevo and Tallinn will also continue to be served in winter. This also includes the Albanian capital of Tirana, which Swiss took over from its sister company Edelweiss Air in the summer.
There are still deletions
However, Swiss will adjust the flight schedule again. Because the airline is publishing the winter flight schedule, which applies from October 31, 2021 to March 27, 2022, in two steps.
The flight schedule up to and including January 16, 2022 will be published on Wednesday (September 22). “The publication or adjustment for the period from mid-January to the end of March is planned for October,” explains Swiss, referring to better planning. “The stabilizing adjustment and publication of the flight plan also involves the cancellation of flights that were originally planned.”
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