Swissair and American Airlines announce new service

Swissair Keystone

Swissair and its United States partner, American Airlines, are launching a new jointly-managed flight direct from Zurich to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, Texas. The first flight is scheduled to take-off on Thursday, with the service operating twice daily.

Swissair and American Airlines announced their partnership last June after Swissair and Delta Airlines had ended their transatlantic alliance. The first joint Swissair/American code sharing flights appeared in November 1999. Now the alliance, which also involves Swissair’s main European partner, Sabena of Belgium, has expanded its network by an extra 100 destinations.

„This new flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, builds upon and compliments our alliance with Swissair, offering customers access to another 140 destinations from our major hub in the United States,” says Jeff Campbell, vice president of American Airlines.

The Swissair/American alliance is set to run for ten years. However, in an industry where the size of an airline’s network can mean success or failure, no carrier can rest on its laurels.

„Our main focus now is strengthening our European Qualiflyer Group alliance and going as deep as we can with our other partners, such as American, in other parts of the world,” says Jeff Katz, chairman and chief executive of Swissair.

by Tom O’Brien.