Skyways: Berlin TXL-Geneva

Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Geneva (GVA), a route to be opened by Skyways (JZ) of Sweden, is a curious one. Back in Spring 2011, the small Swedish regional carrier that hadn't ventured much outside its country's borders did something very strange by announcing a route between Geneva and Jönköping (JKG). The airline even sent out a press release concerning it, in Swedish, justifying the completely barmy route between Geneva, the midsize Swiss city on the shores of Lake Leman, and Jönköping, a comparatively small Southern Swedish town, with a small airport handling an even smaller number of international flights. At the time, this seemed all the more ridiculous because Geneva didn't (and still doesn't) have links to Gothenburg, a much larger centre of population in Southern Sweden.

The service was later rectified to operate via Berlin Tegel, scheduled to be operated from the 20^th of June 2011 with 50-seater Embraer E-145 aircraft. The aircraft choice in itself was surprising, because Skyways didn't own any of that aircraft at the time. However, that wasn't the only problem. The launch date was pushed back, and the schedule changed entirely so that the route did not even start in Jönköping, but relied on a based aircraft in Berlin.

The route launch was pushed back on several occasions, rolling the start date back through July, then September and October before finally ending up on 25^th March 2012. During this time, although the flights were bookable on each date, the schedule that could be found on Skyways' website was not the one that could be found on many of the other websites. Some suggested that the route would be operated with the aircraft based in Geneva. Some alternatively had different timings for the flights. These were even available right up until 2 weeks before the intended October start date, the deadline at which an airline cannot cancel its flights without having to rebook passengers. Altogether, the Skyways booking experience has not been a particularly reliable one. Without intending to redeem it, the company has faced several upheavals as of late, being bought out by an Ukrainian oligarch who then integrated the Gothenburg-based City Airline (no, they didn't fly to Geneva either, but they did fly to Lyon) into the comparatively-sized Skyways.

At present, Skyways plans to operate its Berlin-Geneva flights with 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft from Cimber Air, another small Scandinavian carrier, from the 25^th of March 2011. The route hasn't been operated in the past decade; Berlin-Geneva has only been going since easyJet (U2/DS) launched a Geneva-Berlin Schönefeld (SXF) route back in November 2004. The Skyways flight, which will be operated 10 times weekly, is suited to the business traveller, although timings are also appropriate for weekend breaks and Berlin-Geneva is fairly popular with tourists as well as business travellers.

123456./ JZ4002/ TXL07.00-08.40GVA/ JZ4005/ GVA09.10-10.50TXL

1.3.5../ JZ4010/ TXL16.10-17.50GVA/ JZ4015/ GVA18.20-19.55TXL

......7/ JZ4010/ TXL18.10-19.50GVA/ JZ4015/ GVA20.20-22.00TXL

These flights are operated as a joint venture with airBaltic (BT) and as such carry the BT code. Significantly, airBaltic no longer serves Geneva as of summer 2011.

In spite of Skyways' well-earned reputation for delaying flight launches, it remains to be seen if this route actually gets underway before Berlin Tegel airport closes altogether on 3 June 2012, when all operations will move to Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

Après de nombreux délais, la compagnie suédoise Skyways semble avoir enfin décidé qu'elle inaugurera sa ligne Genève (GVA)-Berlin Tegel (TXL) le 25 mars 2012. La date a été repoussée plusieurs fois, initialement prévu en tant que Genève-Jönköping pour un début le 20 juin 2011. La route sera opérée par des appareils CRJ-200 de 50 places de la compagnie scandinave Cimber Air.

La liaison Genève-Berlin existe seulement depuis novembre 2004, quand easyJet (DS/U2) inaugura une ligne vers Berlin Schönefeld (SXF). Avec des horaires qui sauront satisfaire tant qu'aux voyageurs affaires qu'aux touristes, la ligne a le potentiel d'attirer les parts des deux marchés, mais seulement si la compagnie réalise enfin sa promesse d'inaugurer ces vols avant la fermeture de l'aéroport de Berlin-Tegel le 3 juin 2012, qui laisse sa place à Berlin-Brandebourg, le nouvel aéroport unique berlinois.