Helvetic Airways said it will base two Embraer E190 aircraft at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL), the airport located in France near the Swiss and German borders, from July 10.

The aircraft will fly three seasonal routes on weekends from BSL: Jerez, Spain (XRY); Larnaca, Cyprus (LCA); and Santorini, Greece (JTR). The routes will be operated on Saturdays and Sundays from July 10 to Oct. 30.

It is the first time the Swiss regional carrier will serve BSL. Helvetic said the easing of travel restrictions related to COVID-19 and the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccination certificate in Europe is likely to “prompt a tangible increase in demand for vacation travel.”

BSL director Matthias Suhr added: “The arrival of Helvetic Airways brings attractive new leisure destinations to the range of air services from our EuroAirport.”

Helvetic Airways CEO Tobias Pogorevc said the catchment area for BSL “extends from the Swiss Mittelland to Alsace and southern Germany,” providing “a lot of potential” for operations from the airport. “The demand for vacation air travel is very high,” he said. “We are uniquely rounding off the airport’s range of travel options with particularly attractive weekend departure times.”

One Helvetic aircraft based at BSL will be an E190-E1 model seating 112 passengers and the other will be E195-E2 model seating 134 passengers.

Photo credit: Helvetic Airways