SWISS again named Europe’s Leading Airline

Post by **sn26567** » 12 Oct 2007, 10:00

SWISS has been voted “Europe’s Leading Airline” in the 14th World Travel Awards. The distinctions, which are among the most prestigious within the travel industry, were presented in Newcastle, UK on October 9.

“We are delighted to receive this award,” says Christoph Beckmann, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at SWISS. “And we are proud and honoured that industry specialists from over 190 countries have named SWISS Europe’s top air carrier. This award confirms to us once again that the travel trade values our high service standards, our hospitality and our innovative flair.”

This is the second year running that SWISS has collected the prestigious Europe’s Leading Airline award. The 2007 distinction was earned in competition with 14 other airlines, and encourages SWISS to further maintain its alignment and commitment to the highest quality standards.

The World Travel Awards are bestowed for outstanding performance in the tourist and travel sector, based on the voting of over 150 000 travel agents all over the world. They have been presented by London-based media concern World Travel Awards Ltd. (www.worldtravelawards.com) since 1993.

Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 12 Oct 2007, 10:18

From my experience it is true that they are a good airline! Nice clean aircraft, good seat pitch and an excellent Hub in Zurich...

b720 · Post by **b720** » 12 Oct 2007, 10:23

Indeed, I think they desreve it.. cleen and sleek aircraft interior, very professional crew, and the EXCELLENT hub in Zurich must help too..

Charlie Roy · Post by **Charlie Roy** » 12 Oct 2007, 12:44

Pity only the rich can afford to fly with them. Their Brussels to Zurich route is extortion! The award mustn't pay much heed to the ability to turn a profit...

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 12 Oct 2007, 13:00

Charlie Roy wrote:Pity only the rich can afford to fly with them. Their Brussels to Zurich route is extortion! The award mustn't pay much heed to the ability to turn a profit...

well if you want to save money, and take a connecting flight somewhere in Europe, they are usually the cheapest. That is what I have discovered anyway!

Stij · Post by **Stij** » 12 Oct 2007, 13:43

Charlie Roy wrote:Pity only the rich can afford to fly with them. Their Brussels to Zurich route is extortion! The award mustn't pay much heed to the ability to turn a profit...

Flew to Boston round trip this summer, and they were the cheapest (by far!)

I liked their punctual flights, good food and (free) drinks, good IFE, but most of all, the extremely friendly cabin crew. It still makes or brakes a flight experience.

One point I don't understand: what you guys like about Zurich. Ever tried to take that shuttle train when 4 widebodies arrive at the same time? Then I prefer the Brussels solution.

Kind regards,

Stij

P.S. Yes, the ZRH route is pricy, just as the GVA route was until Easyjet started flying, just as any route out of Brussels where a company has a monopoly, low-cost or not low-cost.

b720 · Post by **b720** » 12 Oct 2007, 14:24

I love that "Heidi" shuttle... indeed they are rather cheap, I think Bru-DXB they are the cheapest.. and with the possibilty to book one way in cheapest Y class and the other in C or F class..If it happens that 4 widebodies arrive at the same time, I'll wait 3 minutes for the next shuttle.. remains better than the 20 min walk (descent and ascent) of the Schengen terminal at BRU..

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 12 Oct 2007, 15:06

Stij wrote:One point I don't understand: what you guys like about Zurich. Ever tried to take that shuttle train when 4 widebodies arrive at the same time? Then I prefer the Brussels solution.

I only connected twice to Athens, once from LHR, once from BRU! So can't really say anything other than the fact that on my way to ATH I had to wait 50 minutes at Zurich both times in a very pleasant environment! (Where you can smoke as well

) On my way back had like 3 hour connection but Terminal B I believe has a very nice duty free area! So can't really say anything about Long haul flights!

Stij wrote:P.S. Yes, the ZRH route is pricey, just as the GVA route was until Easyjet started flying, just as any route out of Brussels where a company has a monopoly, low-cost or not low-cost.

Totally agree! Not a coincidence that Easyjet started to fly from BRU to GVA! Yields may good enough for Easyjet to start flying from BRU to ZHR!

Oh Btw what is that obsession with zwitserland? Not the Chocolate (We make better chocolate

), Tourism but only a bit I suppose, Finance? (Fleeing Belgian's outrageous tax system+ Brussels fairly big financial place...)

Post by **sn26567** » 12 Oct 2007, 15:39

Vinnie-Winnie wrote:Not a coincidence that Easyjet started to fly from BRU to GVA! Yields may good enough for Easyjet to start flying from BRU to ZHR!

Will anybody ever want to break the SWISS monopoly on BRU-ZRH? It seems that the German Swiss take a pride in flying their home airline. Helvetic tried once to break that monopoly: instead they broke their neck. And the prices on BRU-ZRH have remained and will remain outrageous.

maverik · Post by **maverik** » 12 Oct 2007, 15:39

Hi guys,

I live here in Switzerland and I don´t like ZRH at all. It´s probably the most expensive airport to fly out from in entire Europe. Airport taxes are outrageous.
It takes about 30 min from checking to the gates and just until last year you got on LX in coach exact the same service that you did on Ryanair.
No, you guys in Belgium, you are lucky. Brussels and CRL offer the best prices for a lot of destinations and the BRU is very convinient.

regi · Post by **regi** » 12 Oct 2007, 17:23

many contradictory remarks now about Swiss.
Friends flew them Bru-ZRH- BKK in February 2007 and paid- hold on - just 550 euro, all inclusive. Unbelievable but true.
But when you sit next to a person who boarded in Zurich, you wil hear that he paid almost the double ( for a flight less)
Ticket prices are very arteficial.

Zurich is a rather pleasant airport for transit. But we don't hear a lot of comments about going through Swiss customs ( checking on food stuff...), walking distances, waiting lines at immigration going in or out.

I flew them just once and I consider it the best flying experience : good seat ( the thin but comfortable Recarro on the MD-11), an almost super sonic speed, no reconfirmation needed , clean, good food.
Swiss is out of Brussels one of the cheapiest airlines for long haul such as Asia, Johannesburg, Tel Aviv,...

Swiss does also offer very short transit times at Zurich , sometimes less than an hour, and luggage does arrive! This makes Swiss very attractive in comparison to the airlines that go through Frankfurt, Paris and, worst of all, LHR. (can somebody confirm he had a succesful transfer at LHR in less than 1 hour?)

Now strangely enough I hear some complaints the last year about Swiss. The new A340 seats seem to be less confortable. The service is less sumptious, the service is also less "serving", or polite. It are personnal impressions, difficult to meassure. But this frequent flyer decided to skip Swiss because of an overall "coldness" compared to Thai Airways.

maverik · Post by **maverik** » 12 Oct 2007, 17:51

Since Lufthansa got in as major stockholder, Swiss became a premium product and the no frills service on short haul flight was stopped and changed back to the swissair service from the early 90 ties where the flight attendants did even known your name(even in coach).
Nevertheless for people like me who live in CH, Swiss seems overpriced . ZRH BRU ZRH costs about 400 eur and that is way too much.
Quiet some people who live close the German border fly out of Germany for their longdistance flights and take a Fly and Rail ticket to a major German airport .
ZRH airport is very clean but but too big for the traffic it actually handles. It was redevellopped for the Swissair Group who´s intention it was to be nr 2 or 3 in Europe. Then bankrupcy came, Swissair was gone but the infrastructure was built.
Customs in ZRH are very cautious for fake watches and fresh food. Also, if your skin color is a little bit darker , you might get controlled.

Ducatibiker · Post by **Ducatibiker** » 12 Oct 2007, 21:38

I had 4 LX segments in C this week. The crew was very pleasant and professional. Proud again of their airlines. You can feel that their management trust them ! It shows in the cabin attitude !

LX-LGX · Post by **LX-LGX** » 12 Oct 2007, 22:16

Ducatibiker wrote:You can feel that their management trust them

Sure: it's indeed easy to feel such thing. When my clients fly Brussels Airlines, they tell me exactly the same afterwards: "we could feel the management of this airline has total confidence in the crew, they really gave us the feeling that is shown on posters: Passionate about you".

And they're telling the same when they've flown KLM. And LH. And AA. And AF. Most compliments are given about THC, JAF and TNT (but then only if the sun shines at destination).