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Changi Airport Group welcomes return of SWISS

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Changi Airport Group today warmly welcomed the announcement by Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), the national carrier of Switzerland, of its return to Singapore Changi Airport with the introduction of a daily non-stop service between Zurich and Singapore starting from May 2013.

With the commencement of SWISS’ Singapore-Zurich service, Singapore will be linked to over 50 cities in Europe. The new service adds an additional 1,500 weekly one-way seats, boosting capacity on the route by 54%. It will also provide more options for travellers from Singapore heading for Switzerland and Europe, and allow passengers from Switzerland to tap on Changi’s excellent connectivity to Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific.

Zurich is the commercial hub of Switzerland and a global financial centre. Passenger traffic between Singapore and Switzerland has been growing steadily over the years, increasing by 5% in 2011, and 15% in the first six months of 2012. There are strong links between the Swiss and Singapore economies, and Singapore is host to the largest and fastest growing Swiss community in Southeast Asia[1]. Singapore is also the largest Southeast Asian market for Switzerland, accounting for 35% of total tourist arrivals from this region[2].

SWISS operated a six-weekly Singapore-Bangkok-Zurich service until April 2009. It will operate the new Singapore-Zurich service with A340-300 aircraft in a 3-class configuration. Details of the flights are as follow:

Flight No. Route STD* STA* Day of Ops

LX178 Zurich-Singapore 2245 hours 1710 hours (+1) Daily

LX179 Singapore-Zurich 2305 hours 0610 hours (+1) Daily

* Local time

The early morning arrival in Zurich allows passengers more choice for onward connection to other Swiss cities as well as the rest of Europe. In total, some 50,000 one-way seats each week will be available for passengers from Singapore to Europe come May 2013.

Changi Airport Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Lee Seow Hiang said, “CAG is delighted with SWISS’ decision to launch its new Singapore service. CAG has been closely engaging the airline over the past two years, with the senior management teams of both companies having held several rounds of discussions both in Singapore and in Zurich. We are confident that the combination of SWISS's strong branding and product, together with Changi's connectivity in Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific, will make the new service a success. CAG will work closely with SWISS and Switzerland Tourism to jointly market and promote the new service."

[1] Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore

[2] Switzerland Tourism

http://www.changiairport.com/our-business/media#/pressrelease/view/changi-airport-group-welcomes-return-of-swiss-797342

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Excellent news ... this development closely mirrors that by Finnair.

 

Like Finnair, SWISS used to operate a one-stop service to Singapore with a stop in Bangkok. Both carriers terminated services to Singapore but continued to serve Bangkok. And SWISS now is also following Finnair in returning to Singapore with higher frequency (Finnair had four services before the suspension but returned with daily service and SWISS was operating 6 times weekly but now returns with daily service) and a non-stop service that is clearly targeting higher-yield business travellers.

 

Now if I may dream ... when SWISS was celebrating its service to San Francisco, it painted an A340 in "Flower Power" special livery. How about a special livery for Singapore?

 

With strong presence of top banks in both Singapore and Switzerland, there is definitely a healthy demand for premium airline capacity and SWISS' return to Singapore underscores that.

 

This also strengthens Star Alliance's presence in Singapore to nine carriers which include Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International, ANA, Asiana Airlines, SWISS, Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air China and Turkish Airlines.

 

KC Sim

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If the demand is there but the yield is not good what's the point?

Then dont simply blame the demand but rather look at how the company can actually improve it's own yield.

:D

(one example why there is so much to learn from this place :))

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this is certainly good news

the last time i flew Swiss was via BKK and at a good price too in C

but i hated the BKK stopover - suvanabhumi is a ghastly airport.

 

why cant LX do a SIN KUL ZRH - ZRH SIN KUL ? that would make it even more attractive

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why cant LX do a SIN KUL ZRH - ZRH SIN KUL ? that would make it even more attractive

Erm... I don't think so. LX long-haul planes are very premium heavy. Flying it to KUL won't generate the yield LX is after. Besides, ZRH/SIN has to be nonstop to compete more effectively with SQ.

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From what I can tell there is a high amount of high yield traffic between CH and SG. I work for a Swiss bank and after MH pulled out I discussed it with some of the my colleagues in Zurich.

 

Whilst some of them had travelled on MAS and had no major problem their point was that from a banking/finance perspective Malaysia is small fry compared to SG or HK so why would it generate much high end traffic.

 

Perhaps the government needs to do more to lure Swiss business to Malaysia so that it can sustain a daily direct flight.

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Both Finnair and SWISS have proven that a tag-on it not a workable model when one destination has a strong leisure segment and the other has a higher yield business traveller demand. I can see that sometime in the future, maybe Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) might return with a nonstop service between Copenhagen (or another Scandinavian city such as Stockholm) and Singapore.

 

The booking lead time for leisure and business travellers is very different ... and after most of the leisure travellers get off the plane in Bangkok, the airline is faced with trying to fill up those empty seats. This result in low fares on the Bangkok-Singapore sector.

 

Flights from Europe/Middle East to Bangkok and then continuing to Kuala Lumpur seems to be working because both have a higher leisure market ... but now with more carriers on this tag-on route (including Lufthansa, Egyptair, Royal Jordanian, Thai Airways International, Thai AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia), I wonder how long these airlines could sustain this. I hope (selfishly) that Iran Air gets traffic rights to market her spare capacity on the KUL-BKK-KUL sectors.

 

KC Sim

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From what I can tell there is a high amount of high yield traffic between CH and SG. I work for a Swiss bank and after MH pulled out I discussed it with some of the my colleagues in Zurich.

 

Whilst some of them had travelled on MAS and had no major problem their point was that from a banking/finance perspective Malaysia is small fry compared to SG or HK so why would it generate much high end traffic.

 

Perhaps the government needs to do more to lure Swiss business to Malaysia so that it can sustain a daily direct flight.

 

the swiss bankers will go where the money is ...they can smell money

so the people in malaysia with the megabucks should bank in malaysia rather than in singapore or hong kong

 

luring swiss bankers wouldnt work BUT they could try to lure swiss bankers with $$$$ , like you would lure mice with cheese ??

 

i heard they would do anything for that/.

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I heard rumours about this a couple of months ago. Maybe bad news for me if Swiss tickets are cheaper than SQ's A380, I will be forced by my company to take the cheaper ticket. The seats are not too bad at all, but the in flight entertainment and the service is not as good a SQ. LX's flight timing is however, much better.

 

There is plenty of demand. Not only SQ has increased frequency when MH pulled out, Emirates, Qatar, Oman Air are all here in Zurich and expanding rapidly. Maybe MH could not compete in the business class sector, but I have always said that the problem with MH was the frequency of flights. When MH used to fly here, a lot of people told me that they would have chosen MH (it is one of the cheaper, but reasonably well known and reliable airline), but they would be forced to depart or return on certain days and this does not allow them to maximise vacation time, clash with school vacation dates, etc.)

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