From the Rockies to the Alps: YVR celebrates Swiss National Day

Vancouver International Airport celebrated all things Switzerland recently, with a week of themed events and activities centred around Swiss National Day on Aug. 1.

The airport - which is home to nine weekly direct flights to Zurich aboard Star Alliance partner airlines Air Canada and SWISS/Edelweiss during the summer season – featured a number of events during the celebration, including:

• meetings between Switzerland Tourism’s Deputy CEO Urs Eberhard with the management of YVR airport as well as key trade contacts;
• performances by a Swiss alphorn and yodeling band to wish guests a great flight and a happy Swiss National Day, organized by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Vancouver;
• Lindt chocolates at YVR’s international Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge;
• A Switzerland exhibition by Alberto Giacometti titled A Line Through Time, on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery from June 16 – Sept. 29.

“Our market research shows how the affinity for Switzerland in B.C. has strongly increased in the past four years,” said Pascal Prinz, director Canada, Switzerland Tourism. “Together with our great star alliance partners SWISS/Edelweiss and Air Canada, we promote up to nine weekly direct flights from Vancouver to Switzerland between May and October.”

Zurich route on the grow

According to Air Canada’s Steve Goodfellow, director sales - Eastern/Western Canada, the popularity of the Vancouver-Zurich route has grown by leaps and bounds since debuting in June 2018.

“Air Canada has such a strong partnership with The Swiss Tourism Board, YVR Airport Authority and our Star Alliance partners, it was a pleasure to be part of celebrating Swiss National Day at YVR,” Goodfellow told PAX. “Our YVR-ZRH route is a great success story in starting from three times weekly in June of 2018, to almost doubling capacity increasing to five times weekly on our 787 Dreamliner. Air Canada brings together two beautiful destinations with so much to offer and two world class airports. Both from a corporate and leisure aspect, Air Canada connects customers from all across Western Canada and various airports in the US Northwest via YVR, while ZRH connects passengers into many points in Europe.”

Special offer

Until Aug. 16, bookings in economy and premium economy on Air Canada’s Vancouver-Zurich flights made through travel agents are eligible for a 15 per cent discount.

Travel must take place between Sept. 8, 2019 and Oct. 31, 2019 and the offer also applies to codeshare flights via the Atlantic operated by Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss Airlines and Eurowings.

The offer is valid for bookings on new bookings only made on www.aircanada.com/agents.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!