Switzerland

Anyone travelling by train in Switzerland will be surprised by the incredible punctuality of trains on the Swiss Federal Railways network. SBB trains arrive and depart with the utmost precision, down to the minute. And this is no figment of the imagination. For example, SBB...

Air traffic at Geneva Cointrin continued to be affected by the Covid 19 pandemic in 2021. Geneva Airport welcomed 5.92 million passengers in 2021, compared with 5.60 million in 2020. This is 5.8% more than in 2020 but 67% less passenger traffic than in 2019. That year, the airport...

On Saturday 4 December, the Swiss Confederation adopted a new set of more coercive measures in response to the surge in cases of Covid in Europe and the appearance of the Omicron variant in Europe. The Swiss Federal Council considers the current situation to be critical. [link-block prefix="Also worth reading:" post="123863"] From Monday...

The Swiss business hotel sector has recently welcomed a new member: Ruby Hotels recently opened its first address in Zurich. Mimi, the name given to this first Ruby, has taken up residence in the century-old building of the Orient, one of the city's first cinemas, some elements of which have been preserved for...

A business trip with your hands in your pockets, or almost... That's what the new partnership between Swiss and AirPortr, a digital platform providing intelligent baggage management solutions, is all about. The Lufthansa Group airline is offering a new "AirPortr option", via which passengers can request their baggage to be collected...

On Wednesday 20 October, at Geneva station, teams from SNCF and CFF, the Swiss railways, celebrated the 40th anniversary of Lyria (known as Ligne de Cœur until 2002. The Franco-Swiss service was inaugurated on 27 September 1981, following the opening of the line to...

Combo" projects are definitely in vogue at Accor. Having just revealed the opening of a combined ibis and ibis budget hotel at London Heathrow, the French group has now unveiled another project involving two of the group's brands, this time in Zurich. For this project in the Swiss business metropolis, the combination is not...

Lausanne is ready for the MICE upturn, and is equipping itself with new assets to make the difference in a sector that is more competitive than ever. The Olympic capital is in the process of inaugurating its brand new conference centre. Accessible since this summer, the Millennium is gradually opening up to meeting and event organisers. A number of spaces have already been opened...

Something has changed in Basel, as in many other European cities, with the Covid-19 crisis. The Swiss metropolis is renowned for its research and chemicals cluster, for the presence of major financial institutions such as the Bank for International Settlements, and for its trade fair and conference activities. The Swiss city hosts an average of...

Since 2015, the Accor group has conquered the Swiss market by taking over two of the most emblematic brands in the Swiss hotel industry. The acquisition of Raffles in 2016 brought the Swissôtel brand to Accor. In 2018, the group also completed the acquisition of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts. In Switzerland, the chain boasts a portfolio of...

Switzerland is anticipating ever-increasing use of the railways for future travel. It is therefore embarking on a gigantic infrastructure modernisation project along the arc of Lake Geneva, the largest project to date in French-speaking Switzerland. This investment will primarily concern the Geneva-Lausanne axis. Passenger numbers are expected to...

In these unprecedented times, when compromise - hybrids - are becoming the norm, the temptation of the intermediate class is making itself felt among certain airlines. After KLM, which announced at the end of 2020 the arrival of a new premium economy for 2022, Swiss has just unveiled its new product. This fourth class, which is already open to bookings,...

Switzerland is breathing again, having managed to bring the covid-19 pandemic under control for the time being. And this good news is reflected in a series of simplifications in the daily lives of Swiss citizens and foreign travellers. The Federal Council has decided to lift the quarantine requirement for...

Budget brand B&B Hotels has just added the Netherlands to its list of destinations with its first 93-room property in Zaandam, near Amsterdam. The hotel is currently being modernised to incorporate the new urban design imagined by interior architects Agence D'Istria Studio. This first step in the Netherlands will be followed by others. "In addition to...

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) will be making a number of improvements to its network for the 2022 timetable, in order to meet the growing demand for rail services. The new timetable will come into force on 12 December 2021. The network will incorporate cross-border lines to a greater extent. On the regional network, for example,...

In a video interview at the Routes Reconnected conference, Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Swiss Airlines, outlined the shape of the recovery in air travel. "There's no doubt that we're seeing dramatic changes in business travel at the moment. I therefore expect a reduced volume of...

Zurich's new business spot is expanding rapidly, attracting international business travellers. Two weeks after celebrating the opening of its thousandth hotel, Hyatt has inaugurated the Hyatt Regency Zurich Airport The Circle, the brand's first representative in Switzerland. The hotel has 255 rooms, including 16 suites. On the restaurant front, the new...

The recovery of the airline sector remains weakened by the virus mutations, confinements, border closures and travel restrictions. As a result, Swiss national airline's summer schedule will be much more limited than expected, especially in the second quarter. According to Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Chief Commercial Officer of Swiss, "we...

It was the biggest urban development project in Switzerland at the turn of the century. And its inauguration in Zurich at the end of last year could not have come at a worse time. "The Circle opened at the end of November, at a time when Switzerland's leading airport was hard hit by the pandemic. The traffic of...

EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse saw its traffic levels hit hard by the pandemic. According to the airport's management, the hub returned to traffic levels last year comparable to those recorded in 1997. In 2020, 2.6 million passengers passed through the Franco-Swiss airport, a fall of 71%. Flight load factors were...