Swiss fly less to the hot south in summer
Published: Monday, Sep 30th 2024, 11:00
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During the summer vacations, slightly fewer aircraft flew from Zurich Airport to southern Europe. Instead, more aircraft took off for destinations in the north, the USA and the Far East.
Flights to the Spanish vacation island of Majorca fell by around 8 percent during this year's summer vacations compared to the same period last year. This is shown by an analysis of the flight schedule published on the Zurich Airport website by the news agency AWP.
Overall, however, Mallorca is the most popular vacation destination for the Swiss: the Spanish vacation island was flown to almost 500 times from Zurich during the summer vacations. When asked, Zurich Airport said that this is still more than in 2019, i.e. before the coronavirus crisis. Only the well-known hubs of London and Amsterdam - where passengers often transfer for long-haul flights - welcomed more planes from Zurich during this period.
However, a trend can be observed that airports in southern Europe were served somewhat less frequently. A quarter fewer aircraft flew to the neighboring island of Ibiza. In addition, significantly fewer aircraft took off from Zurich to the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura (-36%), Gran Canaria (-21%) and Tenerife (-25%).
More flights to Eastern and Northern Europe
On the other hand, there was an upturn in Eastern and Northern Europe. The number of flights to the countries of the former Yugoslavia increased significantly. In particular, air traffic to Sarajevo (+43%) and Ohrid (North Macedonia) (+46%) increased sharply. There was also a good quarter more departures to Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Podgorica (Montenegro).
Almost 300 flights went to the Kosovan capital Pristina, which corresponds to an increase of 16 percent. The number of flights to Belgrade rose by 10 percent. In addition to tourists, many Swiss nationals of Yugoslavian origin or residents from the region traditionally use the summer vacation to visit their families.
Destinations in the somewhat cooler north of Europe have also become more popular. The increase in flights to the almost polar Tromsø (Norway) was particularly significant (+53%). There was also strong growth for Oslo (+33%) and Copenhagen (+15%).
More long-haul flights
The number of long-haul flights has also increased again after the years of coronavirus restrictions - including to Asia, as confirmed by Zurich Airport.
While other destinations have been able to recover quickly in recent years and iron out the coronavirus dip, this process has been much tougher in the Far East, but the recovery is now progressing there too. According to the airport, the number of intercontinental flights in the comparative months of July and August is now only just below pre-crisis levels.
The number of flights to Shanghai and the Korean capital Seoul even doubled. There was also a significant increase to Delhi (57%), Hong Kong (+27%) and Singapore (+10%).
Africa also became more popular. More than twice as many aircraft took off for Cairo. Almost a third more aircraft also flew to Addis Ababa and Djerba. In contrast, the Arabian Peninsula, with its major airports in Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, remained stable.
More flights within Switzerland
There were also significantly more flights within Switzerland. Almost 400 flights went to Geneva Airport, which corresponds to an increase of 38%. Geneva is also a popular transfer airport.
Only destinations with more than 20 departures were included in the analysis. The departures do not provide any information on the destination, as transfer flights were not taken into account.
©Keystone/SDA
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