LZ SWU Hubs Zurich Airport Destinations 36 Alliance Star Alliance (affiliate) Founded 2005 Hub Zürich Airport | SWU EUROSWISS Frequent-flyer program Miles & More Parent company Lufthansa Group Headquarters Kloten, Switzerland Fleet size 20 | |
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Parent organizations Swiss International Air Lines, Lufthansa | ||
Swiss Global Air Lines (until February 2015 Swiss European Air Lines) is a Swiss airline and a subsidiary of Swiss International Air Lines and therefore also of the Lufthansa Group. Like its parent, Swiss Global is part of the Star Alliance. It has its legal headquarters in Basel; the physical head office is on the grounds of Zurich Airport and the town of Kloten.
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Swiss Global Air Lines operates scheduled flights in the name and corporate design of its parent Swiss International to European metropolitan and some leisure destinations from Zürich Airport as well as some long-haul routes on behalf of its parent.
History
Swiss Global Air Lines was founded in 2005 as Swiss European Air Lines, to operate European routes for its parent company.
On 11 March 2009, the Lufthansa Group board announced that it planned to gradually replace the current Avro RJ100 fleet flown by Swiss Global with aircraft of the Bombardier CSeries from 2014. The replacement of the twenty RJ100s was planned to take two years, while an additional ten aircraft would be delivered thereafter to allow for capacity expansion. The new aircraft would allow Swiss to continue serving restricted destinations such as London City Airport or Florence Perétola Airport. With the delays to the Bombardier CSeries' development this date was postponed to 2015. It was further postponed, with the first delivery, of a CS100, taking place in June 2016 with the first revenue flight on 15 July. The Lufthansa Group is a launch customer for this aircraft type, and had previously signed a letter of intent for up to 60 aircraft.
In December 2014, Swiss announced it would cease operations from EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg altogether by 31 May 2015, including Swiss Global Air Lines' operations there; and subsequently concentrated on its operations in Zürich.
On 3 February 2015 Swiss International Air Lines announced the rebranding of Swiss European Air Lines to Swiss Global Air Lines.
It was also confirmed on the same date, that Swiss International's six ordered Boeing 777-300ERs would be operated by Swiss Global Air Lines. These are the first aircraft for intercontinental flights in Swiss Global Air Lines' fleet. A further three Boeing 777-300ER aircraft were ordered in 2015, bringing the commitment up to nine aircraft. By April 2015, Swiss Global Air Lines requested traffic rights for flights to the United States to utilize the 777s on its parent's intercontinental routes. The rights were granted by June 2015 and first used for flights to New York City from 2016.
At the 2015 Paris Air Show, the airline announced it was switching 10 of its 30 orders for the Bombardier CS100 to the larger CS300. Another 5 orders for CS100 were converted to CS300 on 4 June 2016. On 29 June 2016, Swiss Global received its first CS100 as the worldwide launch customer. The first revenue service took place on 15 July 2016 from Zürich to Paris.
Fleet
As of December 2016 the Swiss Global Air Lines fleet consists of the following aircraft:
Due to delays in the deliveries of Bombardier CSeries aircraft, Swiss has contracted in Helvetic Airways (which operates Embraer 190 and Fokker 100 aircraft) to operate the routes previously flown by Avro RJ100 aircraft, permitting Swiss to continue its retirement of Avro RJ100 aircraft.