SWISS will resume scheduled passenger operations to Mainland China with the reactivation of the Zurich (ZRH) and Shanghai Pudong (PVG) route as of March 3, 2023, thanks to the easing of sanitary restrictions recently announced by the Chinese authorities.

Initially the service will start with one flight a week and then in April will increase to three flights a week. The route will be operated on Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Eurostat, 135,286 passengers were mobilized in 2019 between Zurich (ZRH) and Shanghai Pudong (PVG). SWISS is the second airline to resume its non-stop flights between Switzerland and Mainland China, its partner Air China is scheduled to reactivate its services between Beijing – Capital (PEK) and Geneva (GVA) from February 9.

«It is a high priority for us to meet the demand that is now growing again for travel between these two important business hubs and beyond. Shanghai remains one of the key points in our network in terms of inbound and outbound travelers,» says Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Chief Commercial Officer of SWISS.

Flight itinerary

From April.

• Zurich – Shanghai/Pudong Flight LX 188 ZRH 09:50 – PVG 05:05+1 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
• Shanghai/Pudong – Zurich Flight LX 189 PVG 11:20 – ZRH 19:30 Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

SWISS suspended its passenger services between Switzerland and Mainland China in April 2022 because of health restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 crisis and has since limited its flights to cargo only.

In addition to the resumption of its services between Zurich (ZRH) and Shanghai (PVG), the airline will increase its operations to Hong Kong (HKG) from five to six weekly flights operated on Airbus A340-300s with built-in Premium Economy.

SWISS is the third Lufthansa Group carrier to resume scheduled passenger flights to Mainland China. Currently, Lufthansa offers non-stop services from Frankfurt (FRA) to Shanghai – Pudong (PVG), Beijing – Capital (PEK), Nanjing (NKG) and from February 10 resumes the route to Qingdao (TAO), and Austrian Airlines operates flights between Vienna (VIE) and Shanghai (PVG).

The SWISS Asia-Pacific network offers destinations to Bangkok (BKK), Singapore (SIN), Hong Kong (HKG), Tokyo – Narita (NRT), Delhi (DEL), Mumbai (BOM) and soon Shanghai – Pudong (PVG)

See also: SWISS debuts its Airbus A340 with the new Premium Economy class