Swiss International Air Lines will discontinue its seasonal summer flights to both Zagreb and Sarajevo. The decision follows the planned termination of its year-round services to Niš from November 29. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, the airline said, “Swiss regularly reviews its route network for possible adjustments and its further development, to ensure that its aircraft fleet is deployed on it as effectively as possible. The prime considerations in these activities include current demand, the development potential offered by individual routes and the competitive landscape. As part of these ongoing endeavours to optimise our route network as a whole, we have decided to cease service to Sarajevo and Zagreb as of the 2020 summer schedule”.
Swiss operated three weekly services to Zagreb this past summer season and two weekly frequencies to Sarajevo. The airline will maintain its presence on the Croatian market with the resumption of its seasonal one weekly flight between Geneva and Pula from June 20, 2020. Furthermore, the airline will continue to codeshare on Croatia Airlines’ two daily services between Zagreb and Switzerland’s largest city. On the other hand, Swiss will no longer serve Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Sarajevo will no longer be linked to Zurich. In response, Lufthansa, whose parent company owns Switzerland’s national carrier, has scheduled a second daily flight between Munich and Sarajevo starting next summer season.
Swiss International Air Lines launched flights from Zurich to Zagreb and Sarajevo in the summer of 2015 on a year-round basis, however, both were downgraded to seasonal operations the following year and their frequencies reduced. The airline recently told EX-YU Aviation News that the former Yugoslavia remains an important market for the company. “The former Yugoslav market is very interesting for Swiss, as there is a big community from the Balkan area living in Switzerland. We focus on our customers’ needs from and to Switzerland”. However, the company added it undertakes a continuous process in which it regularly assesses and reassesses its destination portfolio on the basis of the respective market conditions and their potential.
Shame :(
ReplyDeleteHopefully Croatia Airlines adds a few frequencies to Zurich next summer.
ReplyDeleteCome April they will probably say it's too early to react.
DeleteIf LX could not make money then I doubt there is commercial justification for OU tout add more flights.
DeleteBut OU can deploy (and does deploy) Q400. Smaller capacity and lower costs.
DeleteSvica is not far so most Croats drive especially if they are not originally from Zagreb. Loads were not bad on BSL-OSI but shame they were not good enough for gasterbajter xpress.
Delete@Anonymous7 November 2019 at 09:23, not many Croats in Switzerland, less than 70 000, most can drive to Croatia. Business links are mostly what keeps the route going. Croatian Airlines also dominates the route, it is cheaper and more frequent, sad to see Swiss leave. Sad that Croats don't fly that much, they prefer to drive everywhere, every second Croat has a car and getting to nearby European cities, very simple, Vienna is only 3 hours drive from Zagreb, Munich 5 hours drive, Milan, Zurich and Venice, same. Motorways are everywhere. Also, many Croats use bus to get around, the use of bus in western europe for long distance travel isn't popular much, and finally air fares are expensive, due to lack of competition.
DeleteI would add that tickets are expensive because of ZAG charges.
DeleteIf you want to drive from Zagreb to Zurich it will take minimum 9 hours (850 km) and will cost you more than airline ticket. I don't know how you can say it is 5 hours drive.
DeleteSimply check it on google.
It is the same distance like BEG-MUC and nobody here says that "Serbs like to drive to Munich".
It is much better and quicker to fly, so therefore these excuses really do not stand. Let's face the reality, ZAG lost one more carrier and route.
It would be better to find the real reasons behind bad results than to make funny excuses.
@Anonymous7 November 2019 at 16:37
DeleteGoogle is your friend, Zagreb to Zurich = 587km, you can get there in 7 hours. And yes many Croats drive these distances. Most if not all Croats who own the car, drive to Split, Dubrovnik, Split is 376km and Dubrovnik around 500km. Also fuel isn't as expensive in Croatia and Slovenia as is in Austria and Switzerland, you can drive to Switzerland in VW Polo on one tank and still have plenty left for a return, I drive Toyota Prius and even with Prius I can get to Zurich on a single tank and have plenty left for a return trip, yep it is hybrid with around 80km electric only range.
Zagreb to Zurich 860km = 8hours 36min.
DeleteAnonymous7 November 2019 at 18:53
Deleteand what are the costs of gasoline, highway toll, CH parking and other costs related to the car travel, not to mentioned lost time ?
Anonymous7 November 2019 at 18:53
DeleteFirst you said:
"Munich 5 hours drive, Milan, Zurich and Venice, same"
Zurich and Venice the same and they are all 5 hours? Hmmm
Then 5 hours suddenly became 7
"Zagreb to Zurich = 587km, you can get there in 7 hour"
Until the end of the day we shall probably get to realistical 9 hours (850 km)
Worth noting that they are boosting Belgrade to triple daily in summer. Flights in April go from 12 to 19. Seems like Belgrade is the only lucrative market for them.
ReplyDeleteSerbian diaspora is enormous in Switzerland.
DeleteNot much Croats nor Bosniaks.
It's not only about diaspora, LX is becoming increasingly aggressive in terms of connecting flights especially to destinations such as Chicago. Mind you, ZRH-ORD will be triple daily next year since UA is launching their own flights. Seems like BEG is the perfect market for them as they get the best of both world: locals and transfers.
DeleteYes it is about diaspora. Zrh is the busiest route in Beg after ME.
DeleteYou forgot JU, don't think traffic is transfer....
JU carries a lot of transfers from Zurich particularly to Lebanon, Greece and Cyprus. In winter they offer some dirt cheap fares from Swiss market to Thailand and south east Asia via Belgrade and Abu Dhabi (with Etihad from Belgrade)
DeleteHow wrong you are anon 09:37
DeleteJU carries a lot of transfer passengers from SKP, TIA, BEY, SKG to ZRH and back.
At the same time LX offers many connections from BEG to N.America through ZRH.
Diaspora by itself would not be able to fill 19 weekly flights in summer (mostly with A320)
such deals are to be found from Germany and Austria as well - I would not use them since most times transfer times are very bad, but i can imagine some broke millenials who desperately want to post pics from Bali on Instagram waiting for 5 hours or more in BEG or AUH to get there.
DeleteLol last anon what snobistic comment.
DeleteWhy would they wait 5 hours in BEG? ZRH arrives at around 11.00 while AUH departs at 12.45. It's a pretty good deal and since JU keeps on adding flights to ZRH it can only mean there is more and more demand! :O
DeleteZrh cannot be considered a transfer airport. There are around 2 million Serbs in Switzerland and it´s quite normal to have flights to ZRH, GVA, BSL and possibly soon Bern and Lugano.
DeleteTwo million Serbs in Switzerland? :D
DeleteThere must be 100.000 Serbs in Krasnodar since JU is having three weekly this winter.
You obviously keep forgetting that GVA has been used by people living in France too and BSL also by people living in France as well as in Germany.
DeleteThat's how it works with "Swiss" airports
My friend that is why more airports need a link with LYS like Belgrade so that others don't have to go to fly from Geneva.
DeleteLeave alone LYS, we were talking here about Swiss airports and the fact is that they are not used mostly by Serbian diaspora in Switzerland, they were massively used for transfer flights (ZRH) and for P2P to other countries (France, Germany).
DeleteAlways bad news for Sarajevo to loose a European destination considering how few there are but I'm happy it's being replaced with a second daily to Munich.
ReplyDeletePlus who knows what might happen to Fly Bosnia so more European services might get cut in the future.
DeleteThe value of the second daily Munich flight is much greater than the Swiss flights. But it is unfortunate that SJJ loses an airline and route.
DeleteDoes it mean SJJ is left without flights to Switzerland?
Delete^ yes
DeleteWow what a blow for Sarajevo on top of not having flights to Paris or Amsterdam but hey at least we can fly to Gassim or Luton.
DeleteSad but true last anon
Delete1 addition daily MUC > 2 weekly ZRH
DeleteNo, it's not if you are diaspora. For them makes no difference if they are connecting in MUC or BEG. SJJ needs Wizz to BSL.
DeleteZagreb cancellation is probably the result of the Ljubljana launch.
ReplyDeleteI won't be surprised if in a year they turn Ljubljana into a seasonal route.
DeleteWhy would they if they don't have competition?
DeleteThey didn't have it in Sarajevo either but here we are.
DeleteI really do not get it, how come they are failing everywhere in ExYu except for Belgrade? There must be quite a few of Bosnians and Croatians living in Switzerland ...
ReplyDeleteMy guess is they were carrying low yielding passengers. Not making enough money.
DeleteWell Belgrade is the single biggest market in the region and yields are probably the best there.
DeleteSwiss has had so little success in ex-Yu which is odd considering the size of the ex-Yu diaspora in Switzerland and the transfer potential.
ReplyDeleteLX was also unsuccessful in SOF. They tried to launch route twice but no success. Switzerland and Scandinavia are both weak markets in BG due to little diaspora compared to ex-Yu, especially SR and MK.
DeleteHow are they doing in OTP or BUD? I know they do really well in ATH because they regularly send their B777 there.
DeleteATH shouldn't really be compared with the ExYu cities. It probably has more traffic than all 20 ExYu airports combined and higher purchasing power. SOF is much more fair comparison.
DeleteJust my2cents
SKG as well, it's very similar to BEG and SOF.
DeleteGood news for OUs' profit margins but bad news for passengers.
ReplyDeleteWill be interesting to see if they increase fares to ZRH.
DeleteI am certain that they will increase them now that they have a monopoly.
DeleteWith ZAG and SJJ gone, maybe it's time for them to reconsider BNX? BNX and LJU could cover the region quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteAre you for real?
DeleteI'm surprised about Sarajevo. Loads were quite good.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite surprised at how badly they performed on all these ex-Yu routes in general seeing as their ticket prices are generally low (usually lower than the competition) and they have good transfer options.
DeleteWhat the hell is going on with SWISS?
ReplyDeleteNothing. Swiss is an airline based in Switzerland so their cost structure is incompatible with a low-yielding, price sensitive market like the ex-YU one. They go where the money is and it seems like INI, ZAG, SJJ, TGD, BNX ... are not lucrative enough for them.
DeleteAlso, don't forget ZRH is quite congested. Maybe they are using these slots for other destinations.
I honestly can't believe that LX couldn't work in ZAG and SJJ (not even seasonally), just doesn't make sense!
DeleteMaybe it worked, but maybe some other routes are working better, so they going where they make better money.
DeleteCouldn't they have tried these routes with Edelweiss instead if yields were a issue?
ReplyDeleteEdelweiss is a leisure airline for swiss tourists (with SKP, PRN and OHD being the only exception).
DeleteIs Zurich a common transit hub for the region?
ReplyDeleteProbably depends which market is in question. Here in Serbia Swiss is used a fair bit by transfers.
DeleteFrom Belgrade yes, they sell 25 minute connections which are great.
DeleteAFAIK the main transfer points from BEG are by demand order: FRA, CDG, IST, SVO, and then ZRH.
DeleteThat's extremely short connecting time.
DeleteIn Serbia they are very popular for Spain flights.
DeleteAnon 09.20 I flown it and both me and my bag made it!!
DeleteWow that's great. Good on them and ZRH.
DeleteWhat's funny is that a mega hub like ZRH can make a 25 minute connection but ex-YU airports freak out if there is a connection shorter than 45 minutes. lol
DeleteWhich aircraft did hey use for these routes?
ReplyDeleteVarious equipment but usually A320 or A220.
Delete2020 isn't looking great for ZAG. Hopefully airlines start announcing more flights soon.
ReplyDeleteif Swiss cannot make it (which is profitable) I dont even wanna know about OS.
ReplyDeletebut Swiss is not dependent on East european passengers ...
LX is the most profitable part of LH Group probably because they cut unprofitable routes. Alpine bankers don't joke around. OS on the other hand is a mess, too much mixing with Slavs during Austria-Hungary :D
DeleteThey were doing pretty good in all markets. But big daddy LH prefers to consolidate all connection traffic in FRA and MUC.
Deleteif they were doing good in all markets they wouldnt be in the situation to ask LH to be bought by them but i DO AGREE that LH is destroying their Fokus East by launching the same routes via MUC and FRA
DeleteAnon 09:27, I never judge other comments, but sorry, yours tops the most idiotic comments scale
DeleteIt makes sense if they continue to codeshare with OU, which has much lower cost base. This is simple capacity optimisation within Star Alliance
ReplyDeleteDidn't that thinking lead us to JP's bankruptcy? In the sense that LX isn't making money so have OU operate it and carry passengers regardless if it makes money or not?
DeleteNooo love Swiss and prefer flying with them rather than OU in summer. :(
ReplyDeleteSwiss is my favourite European airline, especially short haul. I hate OU, their taralini and their rock-hard Q400 seats. I'm really sad to see Swiss go. Hopefully they reconsider in the future.
DeleteThese are terrible news especially for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteThis winter they have no new routes, even the number of frequencies will remain the same. They are losing KE in winter and they get FZ decrease from 7 pw to 4 pw.
Now even next summer starts to look bad with LX withdrawal.
Don't forget that KL downgraded ZAG to 6 weekly from the start of winter, last year it was in mid-January.
DeleteYes, but I believe that IB increased the frequency to ZAG for 1 flight weekly so in total it is on zero
DeleteYes but there is loss of KE and FZ/EK from last year.
DeleteYou are right. That is exactly what I wrote in my post at 09:34
DeleteAnon 11.46, I think he was replying to Anon 10.58
DeleteIn general, lower frequency should not automatically mean lower number of overall passengers since load factors were probably not high to begin with, there is always possibility of equipment change and redirection of passengers to other airlines. Not only for Zagreb, but for any airport. Demand also fluctuates, not every new frequency is explosion of passengers nor every removal end of the world...
DeleteThis is a real shame for Sarajevo. Not so much for loosing Swiss but because it no longer has flights to another major European city.
ReplyDeleteThey find Pula profitable but not Zagreb? Ok...
ReplyDeletePula is Edelweiss
DeleteIt is not. It is Swiss mainline. Flights were launched two years ago and as you can read in the article will resume next summer too.
DeleteThey fly Pula from Geneva and flights from Geneva are totally different in service, compared to the ones from Zurich.
DeleteZRH-Pula is Edelweiss you can freely check on swiss.com. one of their two weekly is using swiss metal but is stil Edelweiss: "Durchgeführt von SWISS INTERNATIONAL AIR LINES FOR EDELWEISS AIR"
DeleteIn what sense is it different? Strategy wise or service wise?
DeleteGuys you are mixing things up. Article says Geneva-Pula is with Swiss which it is. Zurich-Pula is Edelweiss.
DeleteIt probably won't impact Sarajevo's numbers too much but still sad to see them go.
ReplyDeleteDamn Swiss
ReplyDeleteLX brought nothing new to ZAG, they were fighting for the market others served. Maybe they can come back when they launch ICN but we don't lose much from not having their tiny three frequencies. Others will add flights next year to compensate. Like some already mentioned, OU dominates on the market to Switzerland.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWho will add flights?
DeleteOthers? Yeah right, airlines just waiting in row to start announcing new routes from ZAG. Reality is different, oposit, companies just announcing reductions and/or cancellations to croatian capital...
DeleteLH group needs to match the cost base with the yield (and optimise the capacity at the same time), something that LCCs have done much better with multiple bases.
ReplyDeleteThese services are not succesful because it relies too much on transfers.
ReplyDeleteFor a success you need much more
Damn was really hoping to use their service next summer. They are quite cheap for a legacy carrier.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see them go. Good airline. SJJ really needs to keep these sort of airlines.
ReplyDeleteWell my concern is that OU is already expensive, I wonder now with the monopoly that they might have what is going to happen, in terms of prices.
ReplyDeleteThey could give Banja Luka a try maybe?
ReplyDeleteАеродром се јако лепо развија а и оперативни трошкови су јако ниски тамо, сигурно знатно нижи него у Загребу. Сећам се пре неколико година негде је писало да су лет Сарајево-Бања Лука-Цирих углавном пунили путници у BNX-у.
DeleteI don't think they will and simply because these routes were cut due to needing the slot at ZRH for more profitable routes. I don't think that BNX would bring any greater profit than ZAG, SJJ as it is basically the same target for passengers.
DeleteThis is a disaster for SJJ. The management is idiotic and needs to be sacked. So now we lost LX and on top of that we lost JP which offered great connections to Zurich! But hey let them overcharge airlines and passengers while they shut down the airport at night and have extremely outdated facilities and dirty toilets.
ReplyDeleteThere was a nice report about them here on Zagreb-Zurich route
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/08/trip-report-swiss-zurich-zagreb.html
Shame they are leaving.
I really wonder what went wrong for them on these routes. They used to fly Geneva-Sarajevo as well a few years ago but they suspended that too.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with Swiss, it's all about Lufthansa which now consolidate it's core ex-Yu market after Adria's failure. SLO, CRO and BiH are firmly controlled by LH, especially SLO and BiH where LH is in full control both at the market and behind the doors. By re-introducing second daily flight SJJ-MUC, Lufthansa will completely repossess all passengers lost by Adria's death, and will continue to overlook ticket prices from SJJ. Moreover, any competition from One world or SkyTeam will now be even more less-likely to start flying to SJJ.
ReplyDeleteSad news for Ljubljana and Sarajevo...
The only chance for SJJ is that FlyBosnia(?!) introduce both Zurich and Frankfurt flights based at ex-BHA slots, which are actually very good ones. LH doesn't have FRA-SJJ slots at all, only BHA.
Other option is LH to establish base at the SJJ (probably as Lufthansa Regional), and than to overtake slots from BHA throughout Federal government, which would be very easy for them to do thanks to political influence they have.
Why sad news for Ljubljana?
DeleteFor the start it will loose transit pax from SJJ (used to be CRJ900 or A319), and in future we can expect more similar actions that will result that all former Ljubljana's transit pax will be redirected straight to LH hubs
DeleteLH is probably uncertain over OS' future so they are shifting some of their old passengers to MUC. Austrian is in a catastrophic state this year.
DeleteLH is also dumping in SJJ and forcing OS and LX to operate at a loss.
DeleteI looked for some flights in April:
OS-LX via VIE via lh.com €204
OU via ZAG €215
LH via MUC €215
JU via BEG €250
Yields must be pretty bad for LH since they are matching OU which has a short flight to ZAG and both segments are on a turboprop. Nice to see OU fight for its marketshare.
I am looking at the Austrian Airlines timetable and I see that VIE-ZAG is already 17 in November, mid-December 16 and then in January goes back to 17. In summer flights go back to 19. Another indication of OS' bad shape and overlapping schedule with OU.
DeleteAnon 11:24
DeleteAfter the bankruptcy of Adria, this has no effect to LJU. It no longer has transfer passengers from the Balkans.
Anon 13.09
DeleteOS is cutting left and right, they just announced the suspension of Miami while Los Angeles is being reduced from 7 to 5 weekly. Not good for them.
Oh come on Austrian will adjust. Last time they were in the reds for the whole financial year was in 2011(!). They also announced instead of Miami they will open another long haul route.
DeleteLast time they didn't have Lauda, Wizz Air and Level attacking them all around.
DeleteDrugi dnevni let Lufthanse sa A320, za Sarajevo ima cetiri puta veci
ReplyDeletekapacitet sto ga imaju dva sedmicna leta Swissa.
So finally SWISS didn't stop INI because of JU opened FDH-INI, just route optimization. Now you can say luckily the people who going from East Switzerland to Nis or people from Nis who wanna go to East Switzerland have still the opportunity to catch a JU flight from INI to FDH (Friedrichshafen).
ReplyDeletejos jedan genijalac. otimization = cuting loss making routes
DeleteIt's very sad. I was flying only with Swiss to ZAG becaue i don't linke the Dash. The price to fly with OU is also more expensive than to fly with LX.
DeleteIt's very sad, that we heare only negative about ZAG. And for the winter. Why does OU not boost the «Zagreb Winter Wonderland»? You can easily put some extra flights during december. When you want to fly from ZRH to ZAG you need to pay some EUR 300.- and from ZRH you can visit a lot of cities in Europe like Belgrade, Prague, Amsterdam... for less money. So the people in Switzerland can choose from some cities and they choose the cheapest one. So nobody is interessted in Zagreb. It's a pity.
That's too expensive. From Belgrade you can fly to Zurich very often for less than €200.
DeleteZRH-BEG-ZRH with Swiss weekend in February cca 130 EUR, both LX and JU
DeleteWow that's a really great fare.
DeleteNot so good news for SJJ, and great news for SJJ. Second flight to MUC on daily basis is much better than two weekly to ZRH. Not to mention that here from the Mountain West in US connecting flights to SJJ through ZRH were super expensive. On another hand, MUC is connected pretty much to all major cities in the US with few exceptions. Of course, this is perspective from my self interest. It would be also really good if Sky Team introduces something in SJJ to lower prices a bit.
ReplyDeleteSJJ and ZAG lost LX but LJU did win.
ReplyDeleteThere are extremely good fares from Europe to LJU and 4h total journey with transfer in FRA, ZRH or MUC.
Examples:
BCN-LJU RT - 140€
LIS-LJU - 160€
Fantastic connections to/from NYC with 1h transfer in ZRH both ways!
LX will most likely upgrade from E190 to A321 and maybe A330 just like TK.
LOL
DeleteOne less prestige airline at ZAG. Other prestige airlines like Korean reduced ZAG service to seasonal, or KLM with reduced weekly frequency. Focus on prestige airlines is not paying off for Zagreb. How about opening up to lowcosters like Ryanair?
ReplyDeleteThey can't until they change their pricing. Remember that even Eurowings complained about high fees in ZAG.
DeleteNow croatians could use cheaper transfer through LJLJ with Swiss (Helvetic) either with modern Embraers (E190,E290) or A220 instead uncomfortable Dash Q400.
ReplyDelete