Swiss International Air Lines and Helvetic Airways have extended their long-standing wet-lease partnership for a further five years.
Zurich-based Helvetic said on 1 October that it will operate “up to” 15 Embraer 190-E2 and 195-E2 aircraft for the major carrier across its European network under the new deal.
“Helvetic Airways fully and consistently meets all our high safety standards and all our premium aspirations, and is well-liked by our customers,” says Swiss’ chief commercial officer Heike Birlenbach.
“Our collaboration not only enables us to cover our operating peaks: with Helvetic’s smaller aircraft, we can also serve destinations for which our own Swiss aircraft would be too big.”
Under the agreement, Helvetic will operate up to nine aircraft during the upcoming European winter season for the Lufthansa Group carrier, increasing to 15 during next year’s summer travel peak.
“We are proud that the partnership which Swiss and Helvetic Airways have cultivated since 2007 will now be further extended and expanded,” adds Helvetic chief executive Tobias Pogorevc.
Swiss has been struggling with on-time performance of late, but has blamed the vast majority of the punctuality issues on forces beyond its control. In August, it said that irregularities ”[mostly] attributable to exogenous factors such as thunderstorms, bottlenecks in Europe’s air traffic control system and associated knock-on delays” led to a 64% on-time rate during the recent summer season – below the company’s target of 70%.
Swiss will publish third-quarter results later this month.
