Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
Surely ZRH and GVA have more premium traffic than Paris *proportionally* - but in absolute numbers? ZRH is a glorified village, the agglomeration is slightly more than the tenth of the Ile de France. And CDG offers way more connectivity than ZRH does. ZRH does have its little Brooklyn, but that alone doesn't explain it.
Not really IMHO. Paris is a largely leisure destination for Israelis and Israel a largely leisure destination for Parisians. By contrast, part of the banking traffic between Israel and Switzerland is business.
Oh, and Paris is a glorified village too!
On a serious note, the proportionality does matter too. Paris-Tel Aviv is a large route but very heavily leisure - short haul planes are probably best to capture it, and to my knowledge, AF and France seem to have a rather poor reputation in Israel not only in terms of service but also in terms of safety, so I think that Israelis with an interest in connecting premium itineraries much prefer to fly LX or BA or even LH than AF or AZ.