LUG - the end RIP
 

How do you feel about the possible closure of LUG ?

The grounding of JP (which operated the LX flights from LUG to ZRH) could mean there will be no longer scheduled flights from this airport. OS would have suitable planes tough.

Point to point traffic to ZRH does not make sense (fast train link open) and for connecting passengers MXP (and soon again renovated LIN) is and excellent airport with frequent flights to ZRH, FRA and MUC and a fantastic LH lounge.

Or will somebody miss the overzealous frustrated Swiss border guards, who instead of patrolling the "green border" with Italy, bothered tired business travellers coming home with the last flight ? Forum rules do not permit mentioning the nickname I gave them, I let you imagine.

I will not miss LUG which was too long a playing field for some local people (including the far right local strongman) who thought such an insignificant place like Ticino needs an airport.

For LUG to survive (and SIR to a certain extent) you'd need LX to accept it is running a public service which does not necessarily have to run a profit. Think flights for residents like in Sardinia or the Azores.

Now, since such a thing is absolutely insane given the new train connections, it is only time the airport focuses on general aviation if it can, or shuts its doors.

The limitations in aircrafts and expensive certification necessary to operate in LUG just make it extremely difficult to attract traffic.

I have written it here before: if LX offered a proper check-in desk at the train station where one could drop luggage off, get their BPs and jump on a direct train to ZRH, closing the airport wouldn't be a problem.

Hell, if saving jobs was so important, the city could help setting up such desk for any airline operating from ZRH or MXP, along with increased frequencies by train or road to the airports. But of course political posturing is more important.

It is sad, I've been flying from/to LUG since I was a kid. Arriving at the airport 20 minutes before departure or getting an "aperitivo" at the bar outside with family/friends just until boarding was priceless.

But times have changed. After the Ceneri tunnel opens, there will be no time advantage anymore between catching a train from Lugano to ZRH and connecting onwards vs. flying from LUG. For passengers from Bellinzona/Locarno it is already faster to get to ZRH by train and checking-in there and for passengers south of Lugano, Malpensa is closer. LX flights to Lugano became very unreliable lately, with too many cancellations. This naturally decreases trust in the flight and many passengers already migrated to the train or to MXP.

The best would be for SBB to do a direct train to ZRH Airport without having to change trains at Zurich main station. Lugano Airport should become a general aviation airport like Samedan. It could be run profitably without requiring much public money to stay open.

I echo the above comments about the lack of commercial justification of keeping scheduled flights from LUG.

All the same, I cherish my memories of 99.- "zap and fly" offers on the ZRH-LUG flights back in the days when LX meant Crossair, and the route was served with S2000s and Avro 85s (later found illegal). The flights were often wonderfully scenic, and Crossair served salmon canapés and champagne to all pax in their single-class turboprops.

Even then, it was clear that this was not financially viable - but the SAirGroup didn't care much at the time.

It always felt like stepping back in time whenever travelling from Lugano Airport - even the train from Lugano to the airport is something from a bygone age

Haven't done it very often, but when they operated, the flights from GVA to LUG could be spectacular. On one occasion the Crossair pilot left GVA early and as it was fine weather did a tour of the Matterhorn each way, so that everyone could see. Of course the flights never got up very high, so you were close to the action.

Let me just politely mention the Climate EMERGENCY.

Swiss has officially cancelled flights to LUG.

Source in Italian

Source in German

Amen, RIP.

That used to exist, and not just at Lugano. You could check in at all major railway stations (and even a few minor ones), drop off your luggage and get your BP in the past. This service no longer exists because of, apparently, security issues...

Funny how the security issues disappear for a small fee...

This is not at all the same service: what SBB offers is to deposit your luggage at the train station and then to pick them up at the airport. Then you have to check them in yourself with the airline.
With the previous service, they were checking you in and your luggage, and also issue the boarding pass.

I appreciate that, my point is that the security issue is presumably linked to accepting a piece of luggage separately from a traveler, a concern that disappears with this system. At any rate, I'm sure it wouldn't be an unsolvable problem if LX wanted to offer the service again. However why would they?

If you use the service, how would you answer the question sometimes asked at checkin (or OLCI): did you pack the luggage yourself and was it with you all the time ?

How little do you suppose LX were paying JP that they don't seek another wet lease? Or what dodgy deal was in place that JP would fly this for them? With Winter around the corner, there is hardly a shortage of this kind of wet lease.

From a completely empirical observation, and being aware that ticket prices are hardly an indication of cost to the airline, the price of my usual AMS-ZRH-LUG R/T basically doubled when the wetlease went from OS to JP.

My conspiracy theory was that LX tried to make flights to LUG uncompetitive with a clear plan to scrap them sooner rather than later. The demise of JP probably just accelerated the process, I guess LX aimed for 2020 when the rail traffic situation will be stable. But as I said this is all pulled out of thin air.

On a related note, among the hysterical reactions of local politicians, a member of a small party spoke about focusing efforts to expand ZJI (Locarno) airport, which AFAIK can service jets (A320 and such). That could be interesting, and would open the LCC market (Milano North airport anyone?).

EDIT:Look at this!

Either with yes => your bag is checked in
or
with no => your bag is opened, nothing illegal is found, and then it is checked in

@:-)

[QUOTE

On a related note, among the hysterical reactions of local politicians, a member of a small party spoke about focusing efforts to expand ZJI (Locarno) airport, which AFAIK can service jets (A320 and such). That could be interesting, and would open the LCC market (Milano North airport anyone?).

EDIT:Look at this![/QUOTE]


Interesting picture, Locarno runway is 800 m long......

Oh yeah, that must have been a *very* light A320! But yes, the runway would need extending of course to make it remotely possible.

That is not Locarno.

LX and SBB/CFF/FFS announced today the Flugzug, a direct rail service between Lugano and Zürich Airport and LX flight numbers.

Before there was no direct service, and a change in Zürich HB was necessary.

Now, who's going to be the first one to see if it accrues miles?

That's some piece of good news, but I don't think the train will be direct to ZRH airport. Checking on the SBB website for the same departure/arrival times as what is shown on LX's website all trains will still stop at Zurich HB and require a change.

The advantage is that the price is included in the flight ticket and that one doesn't have to buy a separate ticket for it.

You're right. LX does not indicate this on their website. Poor.

give them a break. The new train schedule is coming out in December and I will be impressed if they make it work by then. Impossible to add any trains here or to change schedules obviously.

The new schedule isn't going to have direct trains Lugano - Zurich Airport either. Changing trains is generally considered a non issue by the Swiss. Train schedules are planned years in advance in Switzerland.

In other news, three businessmen allegedly put forward a plan to save LUG at least for general aviation, pending of course a massive restructuring of the workforce.

LUG - the airport that won't die. Waiting for the referendum which will put to the vote the public lifeline to keep the airport running just a little longer, it seems that a German airline was interested in starting LUG-GVA flights, but since it would fall foul of cabotage rules the whole deal fell through.

Now the airport management is asking the Swiss government to issue an exception, but the situation remains dire. All staff of the airport has been preemptively fired, conditionally to the result of the referendum.

Apparently no exception was granted by the Bundesrat (Swiss gouvernment) - but they hinted to the Germans to setup a Swiss shell company to run the business. Rules and "rules".. gotta love it.

But anyway, it will be the vote on the referendum that will decide the fate of the airport. To be honest, only LUG-GVA really makes sense anymore, and there isn't THAT much traffic on the route that it makes it worthwhile to operate an airport for just that single route. MXP is simply too close as well and with the new raillink reasonably easy to reach.. 2hrs to ZRH, 1hr (?) to MXP..

Probably closer to 2.5 and 1.5 but yeah, that order of magnitude.

ZRH will get more than 30min closer from LUG than currently once the Cenero tunnel is finished and at the same time the track along Lake Zug is upgraded, possibly also getting direct trains. But you're right, to the airport it will be closer to 2hrs 30min. Was actually surprised the ride from LUG to MXP on the new, direct line still takes that long, thought the target was 1hr, and considering the short distance.. but well.. let's see the vote. Whats the trend?

I always thought and said that the LUG-ZRH service wasn't sustainable in the long term. LUG to some of the islands would be good, as well as some other destinations within Italy. LUG-GVA is the best one, if they can resuscitate it.

I'm really glad I did a ZRH-LUG outing with some of the Vielfliegertreff guys, followed by the short lived LUG-SIR with Darwin.

The train to MXP from Lugano stops everywhere, so it takes forever. Also the trains themselves aren't great when having luggage. All in all, a good option only HBO or thereabouts.

Not sure, can't find any polls. I'm also not sure whether it'll be a single yes/no question or if multiple options are available.

EDIT: so it seems there are two ballots, one from the canton and one from the council, which refer to two different chunks of money. The vote is planned for the end of April, and to spice it all up the council of Lugano is due for elections at the beginning of April. We'll see what happens.

LUG - GVA is a looong way by train or car (but the Simplon pass being very scenic) and even MXP - GVA not being served by air, the "direct" trains, at least new, are a pain and chronically delayed. Everything within 30 minutes of schedule is considered "on time".

P.S.: Lugano to Geneva by train always more than 5 hours for 136 miles as the crow flies......

The thing is, getting to the Simplon pass is already a hell of a drive. The Centovalli by road is truly tiring. The other way is up and over the Nufenen, coming down the Gomstal after.

Sorry, my post above referred to the LUG-SIR and vv flights, not LUG-ZRH (I've corrected it now). That was a great trip. Only, we didn't see a single thing, it was bad weather all the way.

I think there is a good case for a LUG-GVA flight connection.

Finally today Lugano Airport SA (the company that owns LUG) has been put into liquidation proceedings.

The plan is to find a buyer to continue the general aviation activities.

Knowing Switzerland, there's a flying (ha!) chance that might happen. But if LUG does cease to exist (like Manston in Kent, England) it won't be the end of the world.

Schedules ZRH-LUG-ZRH before route got axed?
 

Does somebody happen to have the schedules for the ZRH-LUG route when the route was still operating with four flights a day?

Thanks.

Went back to look at my flights and could put together the schedule below. Times may not be 100% accurate of the last schedule as they changed slightly every season, but overall it should give a good picture.

ZRH-LUG
09:20-10:00
12:35-13:20
17:30-18:15
20:50-21:35

LUG-ZRH
07:25-08:10
10:30-11:25
15:20-16:15
19:00-19:45

Thank you!

I had a look at my some old boarding cards and filled in the flight numbers. That was such a good flight (in good weather) flying low over the alps and quickest security / boarding ever in Lugano.