A year after expanding its non-stop services from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg from four to ten destinations, SWISS reports positive results from the enlarged network and plans to further increase the services available to its EuroAirport-based customers. From March 30, SWISS will offer new non-stop service between Basel and Belgrade and operate additional frequencies on its existing Basel-Prague and Basel-Brussels routes.

It was on January 15, 2007 that SWISS expanded its non-stop network from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg from four to ten destinations. The new services represented a 23% increase in flights to 59 departures a week, which was further raised to 61 with the 2007 summer schedules.

The additional capacity has been fully absorbed by the market: SWISS carried over 330 000 passengers to and from Basel in the last twelve months, almost twice as many as the previous year, and substantially raised its local market share from 5% to its present level of around 10%. Together with its Star Alliance partners, SWISS currently offers some 150 departures from the EuroAirport a week.

"We are delighted at the way demand has been developing at the EuroAirport," says Harry Hohmeister, Chief Network & Distribution Officer at SWISS. "The load factors we are presently seeing on our flights not only show how much potential the airport and its trinational catchment area offer; they also confirm the rightness of our EuroAirport business model."

New service to Belgrade

 

SWISS will be further expanding its network of services from the EuroAirport from the start of the 2008 timetable period with the addition of a twice-weekly non-stop service to Belgrade. The Saturday and Sunday flights to and from the Serbian capital should prove particularly popular among leisure travellers.

Connections with Eastern Europe

With a total of 16 weekly services to Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and now Belgrade, SWISS offers connections between the Basel region and Eastern Europe with the carrier to increase its Basel-Prague operations from the present five times a week to a daily service with the start of the 2008 summer schedules.

In a further expansion of the existing network, the present twice-daily weekday service between Basel and Brussels will see the addition of a Sunday evening flight. The new service should meet a tangible customer demand among business travellers, tourists and commuters alike. The service already suspended between Basel and Nice will not be reinstated for the summer schedules.