JEDDAH, 12 March — With the introduction of its summer timetable on March 31, Swiss — Switzerland’s new intercontinental airline, will continue with Swissair’s schedule of flying five weekly nonstop flights to Riyadh and Jeddah .
“As we enter this exciting new phase in the history of Swiss civil aviation, I’m pleased to confirm that we’ll retain our flight schedule to Saudi Arabia since we believe there is room for growth in the business travel sector in this region,” Chris Watts, vice president of Global External Relations for Swiss, said at a press conference.
“In October last, a tremendous joint effort among political and financial leaders in Switzerland resulted in a total recapitalization package of $2.3 billion to create a new national airline for Switzerland. Swiss will utilize the existing management and organizational structure of the Kingdom’s Swissair operations,” he said.
“As of April 1, we aim to have at least six out of the total 128 aircraft operating in our new livery, integrating both Swissair and Crossair fleet, staff and employees. This will be followed by a rollout of the new branding which will begin to appear in lounges and ticket offices around the world,” Watts explained. Swiss will continue to operate a total of 31 weekly flights from the region including daily flights from Dubai, six weekly flights from Cairo, four weekly flights from Karachi, three weekly flights from Riyadh, Muscat, Tehran and Abu Dhabi, and two weekly flights from Jeddah.
“With a proposed total fleet of 128 planes operating to 122 destinations in 60 countries, including eight destinations in six Middle East countries, I’m confident that Swiss will be a strong intercontinental airline of the future,” Watts added.
“The new airline will continue to have a strong focus on the values of Swissness and plans to inject passengers with a renewed passion for flying. Key qualities of Swiss will include reliability, safety, friendliness, elegance and perfect service — characterized by innovation and a cosmopolitan attitude,” he added. He explained that the registered company name of Swiss would be Swiss Air Lines Ltd. for legal reasons.
“Crossair will not officially change its name until it has won shareholder approval at the next general assembly of shareholders, which is scheduled for October,” he said. Swissair currently operates three weekly flights from Riyadh and two weekly flights from Jeddah to Zurich nonstop, with onward connections to 84 European destinations and 37 international destinations.
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Starwood properties on focus
JEDDAH — Starwood Hotels & Resorts is opening its global sales office in Dubai next month. The office will deal with reservations for all of its 750 hotels worldwide. This was announced at a Starwood presentation at Westin Jeddah on Saturday. The event focused on Starwood’s Luxury Collection properties in the Middle East, Austria, Italy and Britain. Starwood directors of sales — Wael Rashed (Cairo), Richard A. Secord (Rome), Gerald R. Krischek (Vienna) and James Ramage (London) explained that refined accommodation, pleasant surroundings and warm ambiance had made their properties outstanding in the Luxury Collection. The team will give a similar presentation in Riyadh today.
