Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
flyguy84 wrote:How about someone take over the GVA airport... that place has got to be the worst airport in Europe.
iadadd wrote:I thought GVA was a high yielding destination ?!
iadadd wrote:I thought GVA was a high yielding destination ?!
continental004 wrote:What about the JFK flight?
drgmobile wrote:"Second most important?" Who is the first? EasyJet? And by "most important," I assume they mean second biggest carrier by capacity?
I flew through Geneva once, connecting from Turkey to Montreal on Air Canada. I was shocked at how run down and short on passenger services it was.
xorrygva wrote:
Swiss' CEO himself says this is a low probability option. I think, and so are most local experts, that Eurowings will have no chance in Geneva. All routes taken over by Eurowings have been failures or have been cancelled before launch (Munich, Hamburg, Salzburg). The Eurowings brand is unknown over here and will not be able to compete with EasyJet with a very similar product. The Frankfurt guys might not understand this.
I found amazing that Swiss wants to become a LLC from GVA when this is actually one of the highest yield market in Europe. Swiss should rather focus on the high yield market from/to GVA rather than trying to compete and look like EasyJet.
janders wrote:I think Eurowings will be LH Group answer to anything outside FRA/MUC/ZRH.
I even have my doubts about OS long term.
flyguy84 wrote:How about someone take over the GVA airport... that place has got to be the worst airport in Europe.
NYCVIE wrote:I think OS will be fine long term and with VIE basically being the gateway to Eastern Europe LH Group won't be able to efficiently replicate that at FRA/MUC/or ZRH and the EW product would likely fail doing this at VIE.
flyguy84 wrote:How about someone take over the GVA airport... that place has got to be the worst airport in Europe.
oldannyboy wrote:I think it sadly makes perfect sense.
The fat times of vanity flag carriers with bloated schedules out of two or more national hubs are long gone....
Not saying it's nice, but hey we have to deal with changed market dynamics and get to grips with reality!
As others have quite rightly pointed out, the Swiss Geneva operation is in shambles, and has been such for a long time, with poor frequencies and few destinations served. New York is the obvious exception for very clear reasons, and will likely stay - it is however a W route, so not an operational concern for LX. But the rest could/should be moved to a "lower cost" operation - I think the HIGH labour cost of LX is what is killing GVA right now, given that numbers and yields are not as factually high as many would like to believe.... and let's be clear about the fact that most UN workers fly on the cheapest available fares, even for long-haul, so GVA can't be this goldmine just because of the UN...
As much as I hate the prospect, I could see a much bigger -and better streamlined- Eurowings setting up four main bases: DUS, BRU, GVA, BER.
Cointrin330 wrote:Swiss and its corporate predecessor Swissair, have struggled at GVA for decades. It is a high yield market with good corporate travel but GVA's #1 airline is EasyJet, a large LCC that keeps costs down and forces others in the short haul market it competes with, directly, and indirectly, to do the same. The JFK flight is profitable, and generally, always has been.
Isn't the airport undergoing a significant overhaul, including a new long haul pier (Aile West)? That won't help LX much as it only has one long haul.
cityshuttle wrote:What about traffic rights ? EW cannot operate e.g. GVA-DME ...
Is it likely that WK will be re-branded as EW (using Swiss AOC) someday ?
WK operates plenty of A 320's and also A 330's + A 340's to holiday destinations.
So actually a good match in terms of EW fleet and strategy for secandary GVA hub.
DNDTUF wrote:Geneva is always described as a "premium" market, but the airport, and basically the city itself don't really project that image.