New Air Berlin routes from November

Air Berlin have announced four new routes which will launch from November 2008. These include Nuremberg to Milan (Malpensa) and Zurich, as well as from Saarbruecken to Zurich and Stuttgart to Lamezia-Terme. These new routes are available to book now at www.airberlin.com.

Click4Sky - a new European virtual low-cost airline

Click4Sky is a new low-cost airline created by CSA Czech Airlines. Unlike most other low-cost airlines, Click4Sky does not operate any flights - instead it is being used as a marketing brand in order to sell unsold seats on existing CSA flights. In addition, the airline will sell all seats at a fixed price. Customers travelling with Click4Sky will experience exactly the same on-board service as those travelling with CSA.

They will sell tickets on flights to 36 European destinations from their Prague hub. These will include flights to: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin (Tegel), Bologna (Guglielmo Marconi), Bratislava, Brussels (International), Budapest, Copenhagen, Cologne-Bonn, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt (International), Hamburg (Fuhlsbuettel), Hanover, Istanbul (Ataturk), Kosice, Krakow, Ljubljana, London (Heathrow), London (Stansted), Madrid, Manchester, Milan (Malpensa), Munich, Oslo (International), Riga, Rome (Fiumicino), Thessaloniki, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Venice (Marco Polo), Vienna, Vilnius and Zurich.

New routes for Norwegian

Norwegian Air Shuttle have put two new winter routes on sale. From 29 December 2007, they will begin flying from Warsaw to Salzburg and from Oslo (International) to Zurich. These flights can be booked now at www.norwegian.no.

easyJet to launch flights between Luton and Zurich

easyJet will begin flying twice per day from their London (Luton) base to Zurich. The new flights will commence on 16 September 2007.

New flights to Croatia and Macedonia for helvetic

From mid-May 2007, helvetic will begin flights from their Zurich base to the Croatian city of Split, as well as flights from Geneva to Split. At the end of March, they will also launch flights from Zurich to Ohrid.

New helvetic flights to Faro and Jerez

helvetic will begin flights to Faro and Jerez from their Zurich base. From May 2007 they will begin weekly flights.

Morocco flights this winter with helvetic

Swiss low-cost airline helvetic will begin flights to Morocco this winter. From 29 October 2006, they will begin flying from Zurich to Agadir and Marrakech.

Clickair flights go on sale

clickair, the new Spanish low-cost airline partially owned by Iberia - the national carrier of Spain, have put their first flights on sale. The flights, commencing 01 October 2006, include routes from Barcelona (their primary base) to Seville, Geneva, Zurich, and Lisbon. They will also fly from Seville to Paris (Orly). In November, they will launch flights from Valencia to Paris (Orly) and Rome (Fiumicino).

Norwegian to fly to Zurich

Norwegian Air Shuttle will begin flying weekly between Oslo (International) and Zurich from 06 January 2007. Flights can already be booked at www.norwegian.no.

New Helvetic routes to Southern Italy

Swiss low-cost airline helvetic will launch 2 new routes to Italy from 12 September 2006. They will begin flying twice per week from their Zurich base to Reggio Calabria and Bari.

Air Berlin make Zurich a new hub

Air Berlin, recently voted “best low-cost airline in the world” in a survey by Skytrax, will launch 5 new routes from Zurich on 04 November 2006. The new routes to Spain and Madeira include Arrecife, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas, Tenerife and Funchal.

Air Berlin will become the 2nd largest operator of routes at Zurich. These new routes can already be booked at www.airberlin.com.

helvetic plans Italian expansion

helvetic will launch 2 new Italian routes from their Zurich base. From 12 April 2006, they will begin flights to Pisa and from 18 May, they will begin flying to Rimini.

helvetic ‘optimises’ route schedule

helvetic will add 3 new routes for the forthcoming summer 2006 season. From the end of March 2006, they will begin flying from their Zurich base to Ibiza, Olbia and Cagliari.

Prior to this, however, they will withdraw one of their aircraft from service and lay off 14 staff. They will also stop flying to Madrid, Prague and Rome.

helvetic begins flights to Balaton

helvetic will launch a new route on 06 June 2005 from Zurich to Balaton (Sarmellek) in Hungary. This makes them the first low-cost carrier to fly to Balaton, where they will fly once per week.

Also, from the beginning of June, helvetic will allow customers to purchase travel vouchers from many Swiss retailers. This will allow those without credit or debit cards to book their flights.

helvetic moves to Luton

From 15 May 2005, helvetic will operate from their base at Zurich to London (Luton) instead of Gatwick.

SmartWings and helvetic to codeshare

The Czech low-cost airline SmartWings and Swiss airline helvetic have begun code sharing on the route between Prague and Zurich. They will cooperate on sales and marketing, although flights will be operated by helvetic.

SmartWings stopped flying to Zurich in January due to intense competition on the route.

helvetic expands Italian operation

During their summer 2005 season, helvetic will introduce 4 new routes from their base at Zurich to Italy. The new airports they will fly to include Lamenzia-Terme, Catania, Palermo and Brindisi.

helvetic launch Pristina route

On 01 November 2004, Swiss low-cost carrier helvetic are to launch a new route between Zurich and Pristina.

helvetic launches routes to Macedonia

helvetic will add 2 more destinations to their flight schedule when they launch routes from Zurich to the Macedonian capital of Skopje and lake-side resort, Ohrid. They launch these routes on 24 and 25 September 2004 respectively. helvetic will be the first low-cost carrier to fly to Ohrid.

easyJet moves Zurich route to Basel

easyJet have announced that on 1 November 2004, they will commence a new twice-daily route between London (Luton) and Basel (Mulhouse).

This will replace their Luton to Zurich service, which will fly for the last time on 31 October 2004. easyJet refuse to continue flying to Zurich after a reported 132% increase in landing fees at the airport in recent years, making it the most expensive airport currently used by the low-cost airline. Apparently Basel has a “management team that is also enthusiastic about low cost”, and easyJet are keen to emphasise the importance of this to their business model.

helvetic to fly to London and Barcelona

Swiss budget airline helvetic has announced that they will begin flying 2 new routes later this year from their hub in Zurich. On 01 October 2004 they will begin flying to London (Gatwick) and on 31 October they will begin flights to Barcelona.

EUjet plans British budget launch for September 04

EUjet have announced, after a much anticipated wait, that they will begin a budget operation primarily based at Kent (Manston), an airport the owners would like to see dubbed as ‘London-Manston’. They will also have a 2nd hub at Shannon in Ireland.

From Manston, EUjet are scheduled to fly to a range of destinations in Europe, flights beginning in September include: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Faro, Girona, Jersey, Murcia, Nice and Prague.

Further routes are due to begin from Manston in October, including: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan (Malpensa) and Palma (Mallorca). Their final batch of new routes (still from Manston!) are scheduled to take-off in December, including: Geneva, Salzburg, Toulouse, Turin and Zurich.

Their routes from Shannon are due to begin from September (again over a period of months), to Dublin, Geneva, Malaga and Murcia.

New Zurich routes

2 new routes from Zurich have been announced, including one by Germania Express to Malaga (starting 24 April) and one by Air Berlin to Hanover (starting 3 May).

New Italian routes

InterSky will begin a new route from Zurich to Elba.

Meanwhile Meridiana have started new Italian routes between Olbia, Catania, Florence, Lampedusa and Palermo.