JEDDAH, 18 July 2003 — In the continuing downturn of the travel trade sector, one more carrier, Swiss International Air Lines, has decided to discontinue its services to Jeddah from Oct. 26.
Switzerland’s national carrier is the latest to join the ranks of airlines including Singapore Airlines, Olympic Airways, Alitalia and KLM who have stopped flying to Jeddah.
“The ongoing economic challenges have forced Swiss to review its operation worldwide and reduce the fleet of aircraft by 30 percent. As a consequence, we regret to say that we will stop flying to Jeddah from the next winter timetable,” says a notification from Manuel Staerkle for the Jeddah office of Swiss International Air Lines.
He said the airline staff regretted the decision taken after 25 years of passenger and cargo transportation. “We’re at the same time pleased to still be able to offer direct flights between Riyadh and Zurich,” Staerkle stated.
Singapore Airlines, which reduced its weekly two services to one from Jeddah following the Iraq crisis, came off-line in the wake of the crisis created by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) a few months ago.
Greek national carrier Olympic Airways, which operated regular services from Jeddah for several years, stopped its operations in recent months as it found the operations “uneconomical,” said a spokesman of the airline.
