Swiss has announced a major expansion of service from Basel’s EuroAirport. Predecessor Crossair had operated a substantial hub there, boasting at one point of “1180 jumps!” (possible connections). Following Crossair’s merger with the remnants of bankrupt Swissair to form Swiss, however, the Basel hub was all but dismantled. Only a handful of point-to-point routes remained, operated by SAAB 2000s or Embraer ERJ 145s. The withdrawal of these types saw some Avro RJs return to the airport, but the route network remained limited. The vacuum allowed EasyJet to step in, and the low-cost airline now operates a substantial route system from EuroAirport. Now Swiss is planning to introduce several new routes from Basel from January. New destinations include Barcelona (5 times a week), Budapest (4 times a week), Manchester (3 times a week), Nice (4 times a week), Prague (4 times a week), and Warsaw (3 times a week). The new services will begin in January, and will be operated by the airline’s Avro RJs. Swiss also announced plans to boost services from Geneva, which has also been neglected in recent years. Flights to London City will be increased from 4 to 6 daily from 15 December, and a new daily service to Prague will be introduced from the same day.
Recent news items on Swiss:
- Ex-Swiss Avro RJ100 being prepared for Air Libya (2018-06-10)
- Last Swiss Avro RJ100 departs Zürich (2017-08-24)
- Swiss ends Avro RJ100 operations (2017-08-15)
- Swiss is down to a single Avro RJ100 (2017-07-05)
- Third Avro RJ100 delivered to Aerovías DAP (2017-04-29)