European airline launches first flights from UK airport to one of Europe’s most liveable cities
A EUROPEAN airline is launching a new route from Bristol Airport to one of Europe’s happiest and most liveable cities.
Edelweiss, a leading holiday airline in Switzerland, will operate flights between Bristol Airport and Zurich from next year.
The new twice-weekly service is slated to launch in June 2025, with flights taking place every Monday and Friday.
Flights will leave Zurich Airport at 11.50am before touching down in the UK at 12.50pm.
Return services will then leave Bristol Airport at 3.10pm, landing in Zurich at 6pm local time.
The route will operate until mid-September, with Sun Online Travel finding one-way fares from £104 per person.
Flights between Bristol and Zurich are expected to take one hour and 50 minutes.
The new service is part of a wider expansion happening at the airport, with four other new routes from Zurich also being announced at the same time.
This means Zurich Airport will also get new flights to Calvi in Corsica, Tbilisi in Georgia, Terceira in the Azores and Zadar in Croatia.
Earlier this year, Zurich was named as one of the world’s most liveable cities in The Global Liveability Index 2024.
Zurich took the third spot – behind Vienna and Copenhagen – scoring highly in health, education, infrastructure and technology.
The Swiss city is also said to be one of the happiest in the world, taking second place in the Happy City Index.
Each of the cities were ranked based on five key categories, including citizens, governance, environment, economy and mobility, with a combined score being calculated.
There are plenty of things to do in the city like Kunsthaus Zurich – the city’s art museum that houses a huge collection of modern and classic artwork.
Boat tours of the Limmatschifffahrt and Lake Zurich are another popular activity for holidaymakers.
The old town, which stretches between Central and Bellevue, is a must-see with charming, narrow streets.
There’s also the Bahnhofstrasse – one of the world’s most exclusive shopping streets.
And the European city will soon be linked by a sleeper train, with services operating to Barcelona.
According to The Local ES, the new sleeper service will run between Barcelona and Zurich in Switzerland.
The new route will reach a top speed of up to 230 km/h (142mph).
There are, as of yet, no concrete details about how long it will take to make the full journey, other than the fact it will run overnight.
The route is slated to launch in December 2024, but other details, such as ticket prices, have yet to be released.
What is it like to visit Switzerland?
THE Sun’s Vanessa Chalmers visited Switzerland in 2022, here’s what she thought…
ALONG with the other passengers, I jump up from my train seat and rush to the window to see what all the fuss is about.
I’m just in time to catch a glimpse of a white-haired man standing on a hill in the Alps, proudly waving a huge Swiss flag above his head.
The conductors tell us that for years, Xavier has greeted tourists this way on every train that passes through.
The Gotthard Panorama Express is the perfect way to soak up views as you travel through this landlocked country.
With Switzerland, we often imagine ski holidays on snowy slopes, but spring sees the pistes burst into life with lush green pastures replacing all that ice.
Our cameras snap away at aqua-blue lakes and chocolate-box Alpine villages among green valleys.
We are travelling up to Lucerne in central Switzerland from Ticino, the most southern and sunny region.
As I devour a pistachio ice cream on the waterfront of Lake Maggiore, the holiday feeling sinks in.
While there are hotels aplenty in the town of Locarno, including the only 4H one — Hotel Belvedere — for those watching their holiday pounds, there are budget options too, with campsites just a short walk from the centre on the shores of the lake and the Maggia river.
Later, I visit the Termali Salini and Spa where for £30 you can enjoy the lake and mountain views all day from the edge of an infinity pool or soak in natural salt water pools.
The contemporary spa also includes saunas and steam baths as well as a host of treatments and massages.
It was a taste of luxury after a day walking around gardens in bloom.
The most spectacular is Brissago Islands, or the “floating gardens”, where 1,700 plants, including bamboo and palm trees, grow in a climate similar to Chile, western Australia and the Med.
Further south we took a trip to the city of Lugano, where the Gotthard Panorama Express starts.
It certainly has an opulent feel, with cobbled streets lined with designer shops.
Ryanair recently launched a route from Newcastle to Marrakech.
Earlier this year, Jet2 confirmed that a new route will operate between Manchester Airport and Porto.