Edelweiss Air will add a third weekly flight between Zurich and Vancouver starting in June 2015, the Zurich-based subsidiary of Germany’s Lufthansa Group announced September 29.
The service will operate seasonally.
Edelweiss Air first launched flights out of Vancouver in May 2010 and has operated twice-per-week each year between June and September ever since.
Its seat count out of Vancouver then dropped 25.2% to 7,946 in the year ended May 2014, compared with the previous year, according to the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA).
“We are thrilled that Edelweiss Air is increasing its presence in the Vancouver market,” said VAA president and CEO Craig Richmond. “This additional seasonal service strengthens trade and tourism ties between the two regions and will have significant impact to the B.C. economy.”
Edelweiss Air’s 2014 service on Sundays and Tuesdays stopped last week. Next year’s flights to Vancouver will depart from Zurich on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and leave Vancouver on the same days.
Curiously, Edelweiss Air announced its additional flight to what is often perceived as rainy Vancouver in a release headlined “2015 Summer Timetable: More Flights to the Sunshine.”
It then notes that Edelweiss will add seasonal flights to not only Vancouver but also Las Vegas and Tampa.
“Las Vegas, Tampa, Florida and Vancouver have become popular Edelweiss destinations,” Edelweiss Air CEO Bernt Bauer said in the release. “We are very satisfied with the seat occupancy rates.”
The expanding airline also announced a new route to the “pulsating metropolis” of Havana, Cuba, which will operate twice per week.
Other new Edelweiss Air routes are to European destinations in Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro while expanded service will be to Greece and Turkey.
