| Carrier: | Helvetic
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| Headquarters: | Switzerland
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| Founded: | 2003
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| Destinations: | 19
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| Bases: | Zurich
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| Owners: | Patinex AG (majority stake)
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| Listed: | Yes
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| Online Booking: | Yes
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| Website: | http://www.helvetic.com
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| Fleet | F100 4
| Overview - Helvetic Helvetic –working hard to stay in the game The 2003 birth of Helvetic Airways was a move to bring the LCC concept to Zurich, Switzerland’s biggest city and financial centre.
The concept makes intuitive sense, especially given the success of easyJet in fellow Swiss city Geneva, with its considerably smaller population base and the capacity cuts being perpetuated by local flag carrier Swiss. However, the execution has been troubled and Helvetic has yet to find its way. Since its founding, the carrier has tried on numerous guises and marketing stances in its attempt to win a local following. For instance, it has tried its hand at serving the business market, serving London Gatwick, Amsterdam and Madrid. It has attempted a low cost alliance approach to generating traffic, teaming up with Prague-based SmartWings, and has opened services to destinations suited to visiting-friends-and-relatives (VFR) traffic, such as Skopje and Ohrid in Macedonia and Pristina, Kosovo.
Unfortunately, the market has not embraced its offerings, with lack of demand forcing the closure of services to Amsterdam and Madrid (and London services were moved to Luton). It similarly quit Prague (thus ending the alliance with SmartWings) and in the Balkans it now only serves Skopje. For now, the great majority of Helvetic’s services are to holiday destinations in Italy and Spain. The company’s marketing initiatives, such as uniform pricing at EUR99 per segment and a fly-ten-get-one-free FFP, have also fallen away. With the cancellation of these services, the carrier has also contracted its fleet from seven F-100s and an MD-83 down to four F-100s. Outlook not encouraging Management, which has relied on revenues from charter operations to maintain operations in its home market, which it has called “difficult”, must be running out of new ideas. The Mar-06 sale of a majority stake to Swiss firm Patinex will likely come with yet a new focus.
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