Swiss International Air Lines will operate more intercontinental flights as of the new winter timetable. The integration of two additional Airbus A330 aircraft into the fleet in November and December will allow SWISS to increase frequencies on existing intercontinental routes and thereby offer customers more frequencies, connections and cargo capacity between Zurich and North and South America, Africa and the Middle East. This is the first major increase in the intercontinental network of SWISS since its foundation in 2002, and is a mark of the confidence of the company on the basis of consistent profitability. Swiss WorldCargo customers will be able to benefit from more than 10% additional capacity on key routes.
From December, SWISS will operate a daily service to Miami (previously five times weekly) and will also expand service to Santiago de Chile via Sao Paulo from five to six times weekly. In addition, service to Saudi Arabia - via Riyadh to Jeddah - will be increased from three to four times weekly.
In Africa SWISS will again have its own aircraft in operation, replacing the leased-in aircraft with an Airbus A330 as of mid-November. As of December Nairobi and Dar es Salaam will be served five times weekly (previously three times weekly). This represents an about 40 % increase in cargo capacity to and from Africa.
Overview of the most important additional services as of the start of the winter timetable (all new services shown in bold).
Zurich-Miami
LX64/ 65
Daily (new Tues./Thurs.)
Zurich-Riyadh-Jeddah
LX228/ 229
Tues., Thurs., Sat., Sun.
Zurich-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam
LX292/ 293
Mon., Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat.
Zurich-Sao Paulo-Santiago de Chile
LX96/ 97
Daily except Fri. (new Mon.)
Zurich-New York (JFK)
LX16/ 17
Daily (new Sun.)
Zurich-Cairo
LX 236/ 237
Daily (new Fri.)
In addition to the entire belly-hold capacity of the SWISS fleet, Swiss WorldCargo's network includes some third-party capacities. The highlight is certainly the cooperation with Lufthansa Cargo: as previously announced, thanks to the comprehensive capacity agreement concluded last March, each airline can make use of selected cargo capacity on the partner airline's network.
At the same time, Swiss WorldCargo has been continuously evaluating opportunities to enhance products and services for customers through the cooperation with Lufthansa Cargo and its subsidiary or affiliate companies. On this front, Swiss WorldCargo has recently become Sales Partner for Lufthansa Cargo Charter worldwide as well as for Jade Cargo International in Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland. In addition, this fall Swiss WorldCargo launched a cooperation with time:matters: the wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo opened its first foreign branch office in Zurich, and with the service "Sameday", it now enables deliveries between Switzerland and the EU within as little as two hours (including customs clearance).
A further step in the partnership with Lufthansa Cargo is the cooperation with Jettainer. which has become Swiss WorldCargo's new ULD management service provider as of November 1st.
Besides the Lufthansa Cargo partnership, Swiss WorldCargo continues to reap the benefits of the partnership with its global handling associate Swissport: Swiss WorldCargo is delighted to have been one of the launch customers for the new cargo terminal that Swissport opened in Singapore.
