Customers of the troubled airline Swiss who have been unable to begin their journey following the carrier’s recent route closures are to be offered the opportunity to switch onto Austrian Airlines flights. Where availability allows, this new scheme will offer the tickets at the same conditions as long as no ticket has yet been issued. This is particularly valid in the case of long-haul connections to China - Austrian Airlines will reopen its routes to Beijing as of 1 August 2003 - as well as to Delhi and Tehran. In Eastern and Central Europe, Austrian Airlines flights will be available to the cities of Ljubljana, Zagreb, Pristina, Sofia, Skopje, Krakow and Kiev. Within the dense scheduled network to Italy, Swiss passengers will be able to change to Austrian flights on routes to Venice, Bologna and Florence. Austrian Airlines fares can also be booked to a number of other destinations given up by Swiss, including Cologne/Bonn, Oslo and naturally Graz.

Chief Commercial Officer Dr. Josef E. Burger made the following statement about this latest offer: “Austrian Airlines is the carrier in the best possible position to close the gap left by Swiss following its route closures. With a route network covering 122 destinations in 64 countries around the world, we are helping Swiss customers with our wide range of possible connections. No fewer than 14 flights a day to Vienna are available from the Swiss airports of Zurich, Geneva and St. Gallen/Altenrhein. Vienna International Airport’s guaranteed transfer times of just 25 minutes are faster than any other transfer airport in Europe.”
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