From 1st June onwards, passengers travelling with SWISS on any of its routes will be able to enjoy flying on an electronic ticket-a great step towards saving paper.

The enhanced facility should soon make paper-free travel the standard for all the passengers travelling throughout the entire network of SWISS.

Electronic tickets (e-tickets) have a number of advantages compared to the traditional paper tickets: an e-ticket can not be lost or stolen and passengers are able to receive an electronic ticket at ultra-short notice.

The prices of oil-both crude oil and jet fuel-have experienced further increases to new record highs during the last couple of weeks.

Several European carriers have already raised their fuel surcharges in order to deal with the higher oil prices. And, now SWISS is also following the same path, and is making adjustments in its own fuel surcharges. This is not a surprise move taking in view that almost all airlines of the world are making this rise changes in fuel charges.

The fuel surcharge for the carrier's long-haul services will rise by CHF11 to CHF155 per sector; while the fuel surcharge for its European services will increase by CHF3 to CHF39 per sector. So, passengers will have to pay more in the coming days while travelling with Swiss.

From May 28th, SWISS will be offering its clients culinary delights from Switzerland's capital, Bern.

Gregor Zimmermann, executive chef at the Bellevue Palace, the 5-star establishment located adjacent to the Swiss parliament building in Bern, has invented some new combinations exclusively for the airline's First and Business Class customers in association with food service provider, Gate Gourmet.

The new innovations will be offered on SWISS flights until 26th August in a new chapter of the carrier's 'SWISS Taste of Switzerland' in-flight catering idea.

SWISS will be increasing its fares a little at the end of the month of May. For a SWISS flight from Switzerland, the ticket prices will be increased by nearly 2.5 per cent.

As the crude oil prices have touched historic highs during the last few weeks and months, which are also unlikely to come down in short as well as long term perspective, the carrier has reached at the decision to follow its rivals and raise its fares slightly. It should not be surprising to the passengers as almost all the airlines of the world are made to increase prices by some percentage.

The ticket price of a SWISS flight from Switzerland will thus be increased by an average of around 2.5 per cent on the 27th of May. So, you will need to adjust your budget according to this new price if you want to fly with SWISS after 27th of May.

SWISS is taking on a new seating model for Business Class cabins on its intercontinental services. And, from spring 2009 onwards, the new seats will gradually be fitted on its entire long-haul fleet.

With the new seats, travellers flying with the carrier in its Business Class will get 'bed above the clouds', a two metres long bed for complete rest.

Installation work for the new seats on the carrier's long-haul fleet will begin next spring. The brand new Airbus A330-300 aircrafts which will be included in the carrier's fleet from 2009 onwards will all have the new seats. The Airbus A340 aircraft, the biggest flying machine in the airline's fleet, will also be fitted with the new seats.

Readers of Germany's Capital magazine have selected Swiss International Air Lines as the joint favourite for Europe, together with Austrian Airlines und Lufthansa, in the classic scheduled carrier segment in the 2008 'Airline of the Year' survey.

SWISS also secured the sixth place among intercontinental airlines, parallel to Lufthansa.

Christoph Beckmann, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at SWISS, said, "The readers of Capital have confirmed our own 'capital': our strong commitment to a punctual performance and attentive personal care".

In a successful move, SWISS has completed reequipping all the 52 aircrafts of its fleet with brand new seats. Now within Europe, all the SWISS passengers can hope to enjoy an enhanced legroom and a comfortable seat provided by these new high-class seats.

The airline commenced the seat refurbishment programme in October 2006 for all the aircrafts in its European fleet, commencing the exercise with Airbus A320 family. So far, the company could successfully reequip the entire fleet of its short-haul airbus in addition to Avro RJ100s of its Swiss European Air Lines subsidiary.

The Recaro seats are highly innovative, featuring high quality carbon frames and leather upholstery and have proved highly popular among the SWISS customers. Notably in January, the readers of Business Traveller magazine have voted the airline as number-one for its cabin comfort on its European services.

In a recent move, Swiss launched its first ever services to the brand new destinations of Florence, Sofia and St. Petersburg, including these three new destinations in the portfolio of its SWISS's Zurich-based network. In addition, the airline has also added a new Belgrade flight from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, besides expanding its Geneva-based network with new services to Istanbul and Bucharest.

Chief Network & Distribution Officer of Swiss, Harry Hohmeister, observed, "I am delighted that, alongside Moscow, we now have this second Russian destination in our route network. With our daily SWISS flight and Lufthansa's five further daily frequencies from Frankfurt and Munich, we can offer SWISS and Lufthansa customers an excellent range of services to and from St. Petersburg."

Especially among the business community, the second city of Russia is gaining an overwhelming popularity as an ideal tourist destination. In addition, the new non-stop service operated on daily basis will also interest those business and leisure travelers visiting Switzerland from Russia.

The summer timetable from 30th March to 25th October is to bring a number of non-stop services by the SWISS airline from its Zurich hub, Basel and Geneva. Departing from Zurich, the airline is to offer flights to destinations including St. Petersburg, Sofia and Florence. The network of the airline based at Basel is to see the addition of brand new Belgrade non-stop flight. In addition, the network at Geneva will include new services to Istanbul and Bucharest. The principal aim behind most of these enhancements is to expand into Asia. With all this, the 2008 summer schedule of SWISS will offer services to over 76 destinations scattered across more than 42 countries. In addition, the airline will also serve 12 more points with code-share flights offered by partner carriers.

With the expansion of the intercontinental network of the airline, the customers of SWISS are to benefit from daily non-stop service between Zurich and Shanghai starting from 9th May. This takes up the Asian network of SWISS to seven destinations.

During last November, new daily services were introduced on the Zurich-Delhi route. Also, a new daily flight service is to be operated to Singapore via Bangkok between June and October adding up to the present six-times-weekly service. These moves are expected to further strengthen the position of the airline in the potential Asian market. Also, SWISS is to operate three non-stop flights a week connecting Zurich and Douala increasing the present operation of two services a week.

In an interesting move, SWISS has started making every single trip of its customers a real treat by serving fine delights of a select range of cuisines from Canton Lucerne in Central Switzerland. Renee Rischmeyer, Park Hotel Weggis' accomplished executive chef is directly involved in creating the menus. The exercise is a part of "SWISS Taste of Switzerland" programme, the culinary concept exclusively meant for its Business and First class passengers introduced way back in the year 2002.

The recent development taking in the exclusive creations of Renee Rischmeyer will serve the delicious range of Switzerland specialty cuisines to the Business and First Class travelers flying from Switzerland on intercontinental flights till the end of May. The same will be implemented to delight the Business Class passengers flying with the longer European flights too.

Notably, Renee Rischmeyer is the renowned executive chef of the Park Hotel Weggis' Annex Restaurant located near Lucerne. A member of the premier league of international chefs, Renee Rischmeyer was instrumental in earning the Michelin star for the restaurant in addition to over 15 Gault-Millau points. The customers of SWISS can hope to enjoy aromatic and light cuisine highly inspired by the famous culinary traditions of France, Asia and the Mediterranean region. 

Contemplating to offer some innovations for this summer, the SWISS long-haul route network has brought out several new services. Flying three times a week, Douala will find a non-stop service to and from Zurich. Flying via Douala, Yaoundé will also be served with a thrice-weekly service. The new flight pattern will substantially enhance the services of SWISS to Cameroon.

As a consequence of these new operations, intermediate stop in Malabo is to be withdrawn. However, Lufthansa will serve Malabo via Frankfurt. The summer schedules for 2008 will also see a new collaboration between SWISS and Contact Air, providing two Fokker 100 aircraft to SWISS, which will join the operations of the aircrafts flown under a wet-lease agreement made with Helvetic Airways.

The new flights will be employed on the Zurich-based services of SWISS to Warsaw, Venice and Stuttgart.

The readers of Germany's most reputed Business Traveler magazine have once again voted Swiss International Air Lines as the best airline for Europe, which is not a big surprise. The airline has ably sustained holding the honor it received during 2007, by securing the overall first place. In addition, the airline also holds top spots in cabin crew, lounges and ground services.

The Head of Sales & Marketing Europe – SWISS, Alexander Arafa had the honor of receiving this highly prestigious award on behalf of all the SWISS personal in a celebrated occasion held in Frankfurt. He observed, "These honors from the readers of Business Traveler mean a lot to us. Our top placing confirm to us that we are delivering on our promise of making our customers feel at home whenever they're aboard. Personal care, quality in every detail and typical Swiss hospitality: these are the values that our staff embody and convey day in, day out. And it's to their tremendous work and commitment that we owe our success."

Remarkably, SWISS is continuously investing in its products in order to enhance the travel experience of its customers. Brand new seats now adorn the entire European aircraft fleet. Though the in-flight service was greatly improved last year, it is to undergo further refinements the year 2008. Also, SWISS has launched three new lounge facilities at the airport in Geneva for benefiting its First Class customers, Business Class travelers and Miles & More Senators.

A new promotional fare of £99 return has been announced by Swiss to start its new direct route between Manchester Airport and the capital of French-speaking Switzerland, Geneva.

The promotional offer, which includes all the taxes and charges, and also offers free transportation of snowboard and ski equipment, promises even more affordable access to Geneva after the launch of the  route on the 16th of December.

This is one of the promotional offers that are coming through due to the allowance given by Lufthansa to Swiss. It has been written recently in news that Lufthansa has allowed Swiss to make growth and develop. The promotional offers provided by the airlines would ensure good inflow of passengers using the services of Swiss. It could also happen that more promotional offers would be made by the airlines of other routes also.

Starting from today, SWISS will be serving delicacies from Switzerland's Canton Grisons to delight its inflight guests.

As part of the latest food service concept of the airline entitled "SWISS Taste of Switzerland", Frédéric Breuil, the most renowned executive chef of Badrutt's Palace Hotel and his colleague Reto Mathis of Mathis Food Affairs in Corviglia St. Moritz have come out with a series of tasty meals for the customers of First and Business Classes.

The new "SWISS Taste of Switzerland"concept is to remain on SWISS flights until March 18.
 
The mouth watering range of starters supplied to the Business Class guests comprise slices of air-dried venison and gravlax combined with a dill and mustard sauce along with a ratatouille salad. Reto Mathis' is the main course, which is a type of fillet steak along with herb butter and jus lié, supplied with red and yellow carrots apart from a truffle-and-potato timbale. The dessert is an incredible chocolate truffle cake laid on a blackberry coulis.

With effect from 20th December, SWISS is to function from Terminal 4 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. This is a move aimed at improving the situation for SWISS and also easing traffic congestion at this busy airport, which will be very beneficial for passengers using the air service of SWISS airlines.

Earlier, the need to relocate was necessitated sue to the steep increase in air traffic at the JFK Airport during the last 12 months, causing delays for most carriers in handling and dispatching flights. Under the above circumstances, SWISS had experienced substantial delays in arrivals and departures over the past few months.

Gaudenz Ambühl, the Chief Operating Officer of SWISS remarked, "We are making this move in the interests of everyone concerned, but especially of our customers. By doing so, we should see improvements in both our punctuality and the quality of our ground services. And Terminal 4 also offers us greater scope and flexibility to accommodate any future developments."

Enhancing the Miles & More frequent flyer programme further, starting from October 31st, SWISS has introduced a new scheme wherein its customers can redeem their miles for a wide range of attractive products online from the new SWISS SHOP. The product range will pour in several top class leading products from some of the reputed international brands and Swiss manufacturers. The specialty items include an exclusive range of new SWISS travel baggage.

Logging in at Swiss-shop.com from 1st October, SWISS customers can make their selection from a wide range of collection including over 250 attractive products. Eventually, more products will pour in to add to the existing collection.

Shelling out Swiss francs or in exchange of Miles & More miles, customers can purchase top-quality products under lifestyle, sports, travel, electronic goods and household, in addition to items from the exciting world of aviation. Quite interestingly, the customers of SWISS SHOP will also receive periodical newsletters and intimation regarding latest offers. 

On Tuesday, French flag airline Air France, KLM of the Netherlands and Swiss announced that they would raise the prices of tickets due to rising fuel prices. The airlines would be the next one in line after Lufthansa increased the surcharge on its fuel consumption.

Both Air France and KLM, which are connected, made announcements separately that the ticket price would be raised by €1 on each leg of round-trip short and medium haul flights and by €5 on each leg of round-trip long-distance flights due to rising prices of fuel.

In a statement, Air France stated that the increase in fuel surcharges had been taken because of an increased level of oil costs. It also said that the increase in fuel surcharge would be taken back after the cost of oil stabilises durably below $75,.

It was a historic day with the signing of the Codeshare agreement between United Airlines and Croatia Airlines.

The signing of the codeshare agreement will benefit both the airlines, as customers of United Airlines will be able to enjoy traveling to Eastern Europe visiting places like Zagreb, Dubrovink and Split while the customers of Croatia Airlines can avail of flights to North American cities on the East as well as West coast - Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

United Airlines' Senior Vice-President of Alliances, International, and Regulatory Affairs, Michael Whitaker, was all praise for the Codeshare agreement. He emphasized that this agreement would make it possible for its customers to travel to Eastern Europe and enjoy what it had to offer. United Airlines was focusing on its world-class network by adding newer and more exciting destinations on its routes. Customers of United Airlines could now have easy access to Zagreb and the beautiful Dalmatian coast.

Croatia Airlines and United Airlines signed a codeshare agreement on June 29, providing the customers flights to new destinations and carriers service. The codeshare agreement has been approved by the U.S. Government. This is the first intercontinental agreement signed by Croatia Airlines. The C.E.O. of Croatia Airlines, Ivan Misetic is happy to sign the agreement with one of the founding members of the Star Alliance association, the United Airlines.

According to the agreement, United Airlines will start offering the codeshare flights to the Croatian cities of Split, Zagreb and Dubrovnik. The passengers of Croatia Airlines will also enjoy the codeshare service to four of the United's U.S. hubs, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington Dulles and Chicago.

United's senior vice president-Alliances, International and Regulatory Affairs, Michael Whitaker is happy to add to the list of destinations for the customers and also strengthen their world class network. The travel options of the passengers are to be enhanced with easy access to the exotic Dalmatian coast and Zagreb.