Swiss International Air Lines has made an impassioned plea for the long-vaunted Single European Airspace to turn from words into reality
Speaking to ABTN at a press conference in Zurich this afternoon, Swiss CEO, Christophe Franz, demanded that politicians listen to airlines and end the patchwork fragmentation that costs carriers so much in time and delays.
”We have demanded a Single Sky for 15 years and nothing has been produced but paperwork,” said Franz. ”Producing this paperwork has probably produced more CO2."
”We have to pay more than lip service ” it was possible for politicians to hide but we have to make sure the attitude changes. People have to ask politicians, how can you talk about the environment while you do nothing about it? Let”s turn concepts into action.”
The concepts Franz was referring to are the genuine frustrations that European airlines feel, when comparing their airspace ” 10.5m sq km, to that of the US ” 9.8m sq km, but with the former suffering from glaring complexity generating waste and burgeoning bureaucracy.
Despite the similarity of area, the US has just one air traffic management organisation, compared to 47 in Europe, 21 en-route centres compared to 58 across the Atlantic and one operating control centre compared to 22 in Europe.
Swiss clearly has one eye on the beancounters here ” a Single European Airspace could result in 12% less CO2 emissions with concomitant knock-on savings ” but the potential for simplification would have a profound impact on day to day airline activity.
”Swiss is not alone in the world,” intoned Franz. ”Operational efficiency has to be optimised.”
The airline also announced plans to introduce a first class cabin on all its inter-continental flights, as it progressively replaces its Airbus A330-200 aircraft with -300 variants.
”We will be the only airline in the world to offer first class world-wide to all inter-continental destinations,” said Swiss chief marketing and strategic officer, Christoph Beckmann.
”This shows our growth in this segment ” Swiss is more successful than most here. We will [also] improve business class to a significant extent with a fully flat seat and IFE that will be a huge step forward.”
First class will be available during 2008 on services to Boston and Miami, in 2009 to Bombay and Delhi, and in 2010 to Montreal, Nairobi and Dar Es Salem. Lounges in Zurich and Geneva are also to receive major upgrades.
Lufthansa and Swiss say they have also signed a contract with Airbus for nine A330-300s and 32 A320 family aircraft. Of the 32 Airbus A320 family aircraft, 30 (six A319s, four A320s and 20 A321s), will allow Lufthansa to expand its network, while nine A330s and two A320s are to be operated by Swiss, the latter fully-owned by Lufthansa.