Pattrick555

http://www.tdg.ch/suisse/presence-sw...story/20404330

According to Tribune de Geneve from this morning (sorry the article is only in french), Lufthansa considers to replace SWISS by eurowings in Geneva

PetzLUX

LH will give LX until 2018 to get out of the red in GVA.
In this plan called "Geneva reloaded", the new LX CEO plans i.e. to cut 25 % of the destinations out of GVA.

f4freeJunior

A very bad and sad move.
I used to be GVA based, now DUS. I can feel the difference. As an EW customer you are always punished. More remote gates, no lounges at outstations where LX/LH pax get access to contract lounges etc.
But why is GVA not profitable? Because of EasyJet?

Concerto

Really bad news as SWISS is a much loved brand at GVA these days. I hope the Swiss people tell LH where to go, although they probably don't have any say in the matter. The Zurich flight will undoubtedly remain as well as probably London.

Much the same situation as you, f4freeJunior, being mostly based near Düsseldorf these days. I find Eurowings a shade better than germanwings though, especially the crews.

shipsmail

And the JFK-flight is busy most of the time.

airoli

No. A reckoning with market realities.
As long as they offer fares competitive with easyJet, I assume.

It is an unfortunate reality that European consumers, by voting with their wallet, have made it clear that they are willing to accept the "service" levels offered by LCCs on short-haul flights, in return for low fares. And that, conversely, they will not pay more to fly on a legacy airline.

In this situation, it is not surprising that the big 3 European legacy airline groups either retreat from LCC-infested markets, or switch out their mainline operation for Eurowings / Transavia / Vueling in order to prevail.

Consumers get exactly what they want - rock bottom fares with poor service. Can't have your chocolate and eat it

P.S. Edited to add that I can imagine enough high-yield demand for GVA-ZRH (connections), GVA-LCY, GVA-JFK to remain mainline.

MichielR

I couldn't care less if they ditched Ibiza, Zakynthos and Corfu from GVA. However, I would hate to see them leave destinations like DME, LHR and LCY. In fact most of my European travel ex GVA already requires a connection in FRA, ZRH or MUC - even destinations with a direct flight such as PRG and ATH don't have the frequency non-stop. AMS, CDG, BRU, MAD, VIE, etc are flown direct on other airlines.

Interestingly, as long a BEST fares on EW earn HON miles, these might be better than LX Y and below...

Concerto

It doesn't appear to be totally clear cut yet, according to bluewin (the Swisscom news portal):

https://www.bluewin.ch/fr/infos/econ...de-geneve.html

benji2227

They announced operating 100% of their GVA fleet with the new C-series, which should make profitability higher (less fuel consumption and better cabin).

I don't think they'll leave anytime soon.

televisor

Umm... apart from a negligible sandwich, free drink, and a chocolate on board, there is actually no difference between Swiss and a LCC.

- Baggage fees? Check
- Seat assignment fees? Check
- No legroom? Check
- Terrible IRROPS handling? Check
- Self service checkin? Check

On short-haul I see absolutely no reason to fly Swiss, especially since it's easier for me to get a better seat on Easyjet (i.e. bulkhead).

Back when I didn't have to worry about bags (i.e. before the baggage fee nonsense) I was still drawn towards flying Swiss, having access to LCY can be nice too.

Concerto

Yes, easyJet has become very much more mainstream these days. I would still prefer to fly SWISS though.

MSPeconomist

I'm shocked as I would think that Geneva would be a high yielding market.

PetzLUX

I have read in an article the following parts of market for GVA (2015):

Easyjet 43 %
SWISS 15 %

catandmouse

Well Swiss pretty well already pulled out of Geneva once before, so this has a smell of déja-vu.
Last time it happened was when Easyjet stepped in and it is now by far the number one operator at the airport.

Concerto

I have tried to make use of their new services where possible (eg to CPH and MAD) but the planes were pretty empty and I managed to score business upgrades for low prices. I think CPH has stopped now. It's possibly a question of "use it or lose it".

But I think they need to maintain a couple of routes that do well, like London and New York. Lufthansa kept Chicago and New York at Düsseldorf, didn't they? I always thought Paris CDG was an important route too, but that is now an Air France codeshare, an odd relationship to have. And it is quite expensive to buy with just the LX code.