SWISS to substantially expand services from Basel together with bmi
SWISS will be expanding its range of services from and to EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg with the start of the 2011 summer schedules, in collaboration with its partner British Midland International (bmi). The new expanded network will see London (Heathrow) served thrice daily on weekdays with Airbus A319 equipment. SWISS will also be adding Copenhagen and Rome to its Basel destinations, and will be increasing the weekday service on its Basel-Hamburg route to two daily flights.
SWISS is to substantially expand its network of services from and to EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, in collaboration with its partner airline bmi. The new services will commence with the start of the 2011 summer schedules on 27 March. SWISS and bmi will be harmonising their Basel-UK services to take full advantage of market opportunities between the trinational Basel region and one of Europe’s biggest hubs: in collaboration with SWISS, bmi will operate three flights a day to London (Heathrow) on weekdays, using Airbus A319 equipment. Bmi will also be providing daily weekday Airbus A319 service on the Basel-Manchester route. The new arrangements will more than double Basel-UK capacity in seat numbers terms.
“We are delighted to be able to offer our customers in the Basel region a more extensive range of services to and from bmi’s London (Heathrow) hub and one of Europe’s most important airports,” says SWISS CEO Harry Hohmeister. “Being home to so many chemicals and pharmaceuticals companies, the trinational region around Basel is a highly attractive market for us,” adds bmi Chief Commercial Officer Jörg Hennemann. All the new bmi services between Switzerland and the UK will be operated as bmi/SWISS codeshare flights. The present SWISS services between Basel and London (City) will be withdrawn. But customers from the Basel region can continue to reach London (City) daily via Zurich.
SWISS is also enhancing its services from the EuroAirport by introducing a daily frequency to Rome and six flights a week to Copenhagen. And SWISS is enhancing its services on the Basel-Hamburg route, adding a second daily frequency on weekdays to provide convenient early-morning and evening connections. Barcelona will also receive an additional weekly frequency, raising service to eight flights a week. To provide the capacity required to operate the new frequencies, services between Basel and Warsaw will be withdrawn. Basel-based customers can still reach Warsaw from the EuroAirport thrice a day via Zurich.
Customers in Switzerland will also be able to sample the new SWISS and bmi/SWISS destinations from Basel at attractive introductory all-in round-trip fares: Rome for as little as CHF 99, for instance, and Copenhagen, London (Heathrow) or Manchester for as little as CHF 129. The special introductory fares are bookable online at
www.swiss.com from 20 to 30 January for travel from 27 March.
In the 2011 summer schedules SWISS and its Star Alliance codeshare partners Lufthansa, bmi, Austrian Airlines and Turkish Airlines will provide non-stop service from Basel to 15 destinations: Rome, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Barcelona, Prague, Brussels, Zurich, Budapest, London (Heathrow), Manchester, Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Vienna and Istanbul. Between them, the Star Alliance partners will offer 196 flights a week, i.e. most of the services to and from the EuroAirport.
Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. bmi group press office
Corporate Communications Phone +44 (0) 133 285 4687
Phone +41 848 773 773 Email
pressoffice@flybmi.com
Fax +41 44 564 2127
Email
media@swiss.com
British Midland International is the second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world’s leading international hub airports. Across its mainline route network bmi operates to Aberdeen; Addis Ababa; Almaty; Amman; Baku; Beirut; Belfast City; Berlin; Bishkek; Cairo; Damascus; Dammam; Dublin; Edinburgh; Freetown; Glasgow; Hanover; Jeddah; Khartoum; London Heathrow; Manchester; Moscow Domodedovo; Riyadh; Tbilisi; Tehran; Tripoli; Vienna; Yerevan. bmi Regional operates to Aberdeen; Brussels; Copenhagen; East Midlands; Edinburgh; Esbjerg; Glasgow; Groningen; Leeds Bradford; Lyon; Manchester; Norwich; Zurich.
