Swiss International Air Lines is substantially expanding its range of services from Geneva and Basel in its 2011 summer schedules. For Geneva the carrier is increasing its daily services to Athens, and will now offer a total of ten destinations in the Mediterranean region under codeshare agreements with sister airline Edelweiss Air. SWISS is also enhancing its services from Basel, adding Rome and Copenhagen to its Basel-based network and raising frequencies on its existing Hamburg and Barcelona routes. Nice will also be served four times a week from Basel in the summer season; and SWISS will be offering up to three new daily flights from Basel to London (Heathrow) and daily service on the Basel-Manchester route in collaboration with its partner bmi. For Zurich, SWISS will be raising capacity to Shanghai, San Francisco and East and West Africa and on certain Southern European routes in the new summer schedules, which come into effect on 27 March.

SWISS will serve 72 destinations (48 in Europe and 24 beyond) in 39 countries in its 2011 summer schedules, using an 89-aircraft fleet that includes seven aircraft operated under wet-lease arrangements. By mid-year, the entire SWISS long-haul fleet will be equipped with the new Business Class cabin. SWISS is the only airline to offer a First, Business and Economy Class product on all its long-haul flights.

More flights and points from Geneva

SWISS will be increasing its frequencies on the Geneva-Athens route in the new summer schedules, with customers now able to choose between two daily flights to the Greek capital. Travellers from Geneva will also have even more choice in their leisure travel plans, thanks to the close collaboration between SWISS and Edelweiss Air. In addition to Pristina, SWISS’s sister carrier will offer service to the vacation destinations of Heraklion, Rhodes, Kos, Las Palmas, Tenerife, Mykonos, Santorini, Larnaca and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Services expanded from Basel, too

SWISS will be enlarging its network of services from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in its summer schedules, offering a new daily flight to Rome and six weekly frequencies to Copenhagen. The airline is also intensifying its services on the existing Basel-Hamburg route, raising weekday frequencies to two peripheral-hours connections. Barcelona receives an additional Saturday flight, and will now be served eight times a week. And from 1 July to 22 August SWISS will also offer a seasonal service between Basel and Nice consisting of four weekly flights.

SWISS will also be modifying its range of services between Basel and the UK with the start of the summer schedules on 27 March, in collaboration with its partner carrier bmi. Under the new arrangements, London (Heathrow) will be added to the Basel-based network, in place of London (City). The thrice-daily weekday service and the twice-daily weekend service to and from Heathrow will be operated by bmi in cooperation with SWISS, together with a new daily Manchester flight. All these services will be provided using Airbus A319 equipment. The new arrangements more than double Basel-UK capacity in seat numbers terms.

More frequencies from Zurich

SWISS customers will also enjoy a wider choice of flights to intercontinental destinations from Zurich in the new summer schedules. One additional weekly frequency each is being added to San Francisco and Shanghai, establishing daily service on both routes. Frequencies are also being increased to the West African destinations of Douala and Yaoundé, which will now receive four weekly flights, while service to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam is expanded from five to six flights a week. In Europe, SWISS is enlarging its flight programme with the addition of seasonal services to Malaga and Palma de Mallorca.

In Zurich, too, customers will benefit from the close collaboration between SWISS and Edelweiss Air. SWISS’s sister carrier is adding Beirut, Beijing and Anchorage-Whitehorse to its long-haul services, and will also be resuming the combined Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) and Mombasa (Kenya) flights first offered last winter from July onwards. The Edelweiss Air short-haul network sees new service offered to Chania and Dalaman, and new daily frequencies to Palma de Mallorca and Crete.

The 2011 summer timetable period runs from 27 March to 29 October. Full details are available on SWISS.COM.