Swiss has become the latest European airline to announce the resumption of services to mainland China following the dropping of Covid-19 travel restrictions by the Chinese authorities last month.
The Lufthansa-owned carrier said it would restart its Zurich to Shanghai route on 3 March. Swiss will initially operate one flight per week to Shanghai before expanding to three weekly services from April. The airline will also increase frequencies from Zurich to Hong Kong from five to six flights per week for its summer 2023 schedule.
Swiss’ announcement follows similar moves last week by UK-based airlines British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to restore flights to mainland China. Gulf carriers Emirates and Etihad are also stepping up their resumption of flights to China.
Tamur Goudarzi Pour, chief commercial officer of Swiss, said: “It’s a high priority for us to meet the demand that is now growing again for travel between these two major business centres and beyond. Shanghai remains one of the key points in our network in terms of both inbound and outbound travellers.”
The airline suspended Zurich-Shanghai passenger services in April 2022 due to ongoing Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Several European countries have imposed Covid tests on travellers arriving from China but Switzerland has chosen not to follow suit.