Well it seems the leases of British Midland International planes doing turns for Lufthansa group airlines is beginning to draw to a close.
Swiss have announced they are going to be switching from BMI’s Aircraft to Brussels Airlines AvroJets. Consequently, the Basel<>London Heathrow route will be killed off, and replaced with a Basel <> London City Airport route. There’s further adjustment on the Swiss network too…
The PR from Swiss goes a little like this:
SWISS will be making modifications to its present pattern of services from and to EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg with effect from 21 May. The changes include the resumption of direct flights to London City Airport. In a further development, the Basel-Brussels route will now be operated by partner carrier Brussels Airlines under a codeshare arrangement.
The modifications to SWISS’s Basel services have been prompted by the planned sale of sister Lufthansa Group carrier bmi to the International Airlines Group. Under the changes, which will enter into effect on 21 May, London Heathrow will no longer be served from the EuroAirport. SWISS will, however, be restoring London City to its Basel-based network, offering a twice-daily service operated with its own equipment. Basel-Hamburg services remain unchanged at two daily flights. Business and leisure travellers to both Hamburg and London City will enjoy attractive departure times.
As a result of the resumption of services between Basel and London City, service on the Basel-Rome route will be reduced to four weekly flights. Copenhagen, Budapest and Manchester will no longer be served directly from Basel, but will remain easily reachable via Zurich and the 16 daily services of the “Flugzug” airport train.
Brussels will continue to be served from Basel with eleven weekly flights. But these will now be operated by SWISS partner carrier Brussels Airlines under a codeshare agreement. The high-frequency service between Basel and its Brussels hub offers travellers excellent connections from and onto Brussels Airlines’ further international network. The present eight weekly services between Basel and Barcelona and five weekly Basel-Prague flights remain unchanged.
So what’s interesting to note here?
- Well the switchover date is the 21st May 2012 – a bit later than some people are predicting for the sale of British Midland Airways to International Airlines Group. This could be purely down to leasing arrangements… or it could be something Lufthansa Group isn’t telling us.
- Basel-Rome route will be reduced to four weekly flights.
- Copenhagen, Budapest and Manchester will no longer be served directly from Basel. Which is quite interesting as the Manchester-Basel run is operated by… BMI.
- Brussels Airlines will be doing the heavy lifting for Swiss on the Brussels to Basel run, releasing ARJ’s.
Has Swiss accidentally released a timeline of switchover… or is something bigger going on in the backrooms? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough…
