SWISS INTERNATIONAL AIR LINES

'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

History

Destinations

New routes and added frequencies

Code share partners

Fleet

Gallery

External links

References

History

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.

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.

Destinations

Main articles: Swiss International Air Lines destinations

New routes and added frequencies

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:

★ Zurich-New York - increasing 7 to 13 a week

★ Zurich-Miami - daily

★ Zurich-Riyadh-Jeddah - increasing 3 to 4 a week

★ Zurich-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam - increasing 4 to 5 a week

★ Zurich-São Paulo-Santiago - increasing 5 to 6 a week

★ All services between Zurich International Airport and Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport / Julius Nyerere International Airport - Dar Es Salaam / Malabo International Airport / Douala Airport and Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport will be flown with A330 aircraft

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:

★ Zurich-Tokyo - daily

★ Zurich-Cairo - daily

★ Zurich-Johannesburg - goes daily

★ Zurich-Los Angeles - increasing 5 to 6 a week

★ Zurich-São Paulo-Santiago - daily
Also, new routes to be launched:

★ Zürich - New Delhi Will be a daily service operated by airbus A330-200 aircraft

★ Zürich - Shanghai Will be 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].

Code share partners

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

★ Adria Airways

★ Air Canada

★ Air France

★ All Nippon Airways

★ Austrian Airlines

★ Blue1

★ Brussels Airlines

★ Cirrus Airlines

★ Croatia Airlines

★ Darwin Airline

★ Egyptair

★ El Al

★ LOT Polish Airlines

★ Malaysia Airlines

★ MAT Macedonian Airlines

★ 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

★ Ukraine International Airlines

★ Scandinavian Airlines System

★ Spanair

★ TAP Portugal

★ Thai Airways International

★ United Airlines

Fleet

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

'Swiss International Air Lines Fleet'

Aircraft	Total	Passengers (First/Business ★ /Economy)	Notes
Airbus A319-100	7	110 (75/35)
Airbus A320-200	17	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.
Airbus A330-300	9 orders
Airbus A340-300	10 (5 orders)	228 (8/48/172)
Avro RJ100 ★ ★	20	97 (40/57)
Avro RJ85 ★ ★	2

^{★ Business Class offered on Airbus A330/A340 aircraft.}


★
★ operated by Swiss European Air Lines Ltd.
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. To avail the market chances, Swiss announced that they plan to add 2 additional Airbus A320 aircraft to their fleet earlier than planned. The aircraft will be added in autumn 2007.

Gallery

External links

★ Official website

★ Swiss WorldCargo - Cargo Operations

★ BBC article on the Lufthansa takeover

★ History of Swiss and Swissair

★ Star Alliance

★ Swissair and Swiss Fan Site

References

1. Airliner World, February 2007
2. http://www.aerospacemedia.com/site/afp.php?Id=070820072142.0o58at3b.xml News release
3. Airliner World January 2007