Swiss International Air Lines is to further expand its route network in its 2018 summer schedules with attractive new destinations served from Zurich. New flights will be introduced to the French cities of Bordeaux and Marseille; service will be resumed to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine; and Swiss will also offer summer service for the first time to Wroclaw in Southern Poland.

Swiss International Air Lines will offer travellers from Zurich services to four attractive new destinations in its 2018 summer schedules.

New flights to Bordeaux, Marseille, Kiev and Wroclaw

Swiss will offer 12 weekly services to Bordeaux in Southwest France from the end of next March onwards. The first such flight will operate on March 26, 2018. The new services will consist of two daily flights on Mondays to Fridays and single daily Saturday and Sunday flights. Bordeaux lies in a popular tourist region that is famed for both its wines and its extensive cultural attractions. The region is important in economic terms, too, and has become particularly prominent in recent years in the field of future technologies such as molecular sciences and space research.

Swiss will also be introducing a new thrice-weekly service between Zurich and Marseille on 21 April 2018. The flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Mediterranean port city is the gateway to Provence, one of Europe’s most attractive and popular holiday regions, and is also the starting point for many cruise vacations.

Nonstop Swiss services to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev will resume on 26 March 2018. SWISS withdrew its previous Zurich-Kiev flights in October 2014. The new service will consist of four weekly flights operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

The new thrice-weekly service to Wroclaw in Southern Poland which will commence with the start of the 2017/18 winter schedules will also be continued in the 2018 summer timetable period. The service, which will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, is being introduced in response to strong demand from the growing Swiss-Polish business community.

Swiss’ new 2018 summer destinations from Zurich will be served using various aircraft types including its new Bombardier CS100s and CS300s.

Copyright Photo: Swiss International Air Lines Bombardier CS300 (BD-500-1A11) HB-JCA (msn 55010) (Swiss Romandy) ZRH (Rolf Wallner). Image: 939552.

Swiss International Air Lines on June 14, 2017 made this announcement:

As a testimony to its commitment, Swiss International Air Lines is dedicating its very first Bombardier CS300 to Swiss Romandy and its citizens. A wide-scale two-phase competition was held over a number of months. Firstly, Swiss asked the Swiss Romands: “What does Swiss Romandy mean to you?” The response quote was phenomenal: more than 7,000 people answered with a slogan, a phrase or just a word. Their replies once again demonstrated the diversity and richness of Swiss Romandy. But all the answers had one thing in common: pride in the region, its nature, its inhabitants and their achievements. There was also a second question: “Who is your Swiss Romand hero?” Swiss received many testimonies inspired by very poignant personal stories, sometimes amusing but mostly moving. SWISS then chose 49 of these stories at random and their heroes’ names are each printed on one of the seats of the new aircraft.

The artist: Mathias Forbach, also known as Fichtre

The artist was truly inspired by the competition results. Mathias Forbach, also known as Fichtre, immersed himself in the replies before producing a graphic interpretation of the plethora of ideas put forward on this beautiful region. He says of the project: “Every artist’s goal is to broadcast their art and give it wings … what better way to do that than on an aeroplane!”

A special livery for the first Swiss CS300

“The Swiss Romands’ aeroplane”, the CS300, will wear its new colors for the next 12 months. No less than 300 square meters of special film were printed and carefully applied to the plane in a 36-hour-long process. The aircraft will be based in Geneva and will serve 27 destinations including Palma (in summer), St. Petersburg (in winter) and Dublin (all year round).

Swiss renews its Geneva fleet

The CS300 has 145 seats, 20 more than the CS100. By the end of 2018, the SWISS short-haul fleet in Geneva will consist exclusively of Bombardier C Series. In total, the company plans to add one CS100 and seven CS300s to replace (amongst others) the seven Airbus A320-family aircraft currently stationed at Cointrin airport. Swiss is thus reaffirming its commitment to the Geneva site and Swiss Romandy as a whole.

Biography – Mathias Forbach

Mathias Forbach (Fichtre) studied at the École Cantonale d’Art in Lausanne and graduated from there in 2005 with a Bachelor in Media & Interaction Design. He began teaching illustration at the École Cantonale d’Art in Sierre, Valais in 2009, and decided in 2012 to proceed his artistic education by following the Work.Master programme at the Haute École d’Art et de Design in Geneva. In 2014, he co-founded STADIO art gallery in Vevey with Joëlle Nicolas, Guillaume Ehinger and Jacques Duboux, and was awarded a Masters degree in Visual Arts in 2015. As a freelance graphic artist, he uses drawing and illustration as means for experimentation and research. The exhibition space is core to his approach, and he is constantly questioning and changing it. It is a multi-faceted vector, with infinite possibilities, a revival of graphic languages. The result is a “hyperarea”, a continent with undefined edges, which reminds us that visual art is limitless, as is the variation of its medium.

Copyright Photo: Swiss International Air Lines Bombardier CS300 (BD-500-1A11) HB-JCA (msn 55010) (Swiss Romandy) ZRH (Rolf Wallner). Image: 938219.