Just read this on Twitter. Seems they are putting all their business through London City from end of May which is pretty annoying. Not sure whether another airline will start flying this route instead, anyone any ideas?

http://www.swiss.com/web/EN/about_sw..._20120208.aspx

With the loss of Speke also, that means no direct Basel > North West flights.
Mrs Mainwaring will not be happy.

Well.. Swiss might not operate the flight.. but maybe BMI will keep it under its new owners... Fingers Crossed

Just been on the BMI website and put in a date after May and it seems to be taking it ok so maybe that's what's happening, fingers crossed indeed!

I am not a happy bunny. Easyjet have stopped Zurich to Manchester and now this. Do they think the north of England has ceased to exist or something.

I do hope BMI take this route back over .. when they briefly ran the route last year I found flying with them to be a vastly more enjoyable experience than with Swiss - although to be fair, Swiss was fine, it's just that BMI was really really good (in particular one flight with a very upset 9 year old in tow .. one steward spent more than 20 minutes sitting next to him and explaining how the plane works/doesn't fall out of the sky etc etc. Fear completely vanished and we are very grateful to the customer service skills of this particular steward .. actually wrote a letter to BMI to thank him!)

Don't hold your breath. BMI have been bought by BA, who are more or less on record daying that the only thing worth money in BMI are their slots at Heathrow (and maybe some routes to the Middle East and Central Asia). I assume the rest of the operations will be closed down wuickly after completion of the sale.

Surely someone will be interested in flying us Northerners direct back home from Basel! Gutted about this flight being stopped

Wahay! BSL to LCY is back.

AdrianLondon get off this Northerners' thread and start a Southerners' thread of your own...

(now hoping you're not going to say you're Scouser born and bred ...)

it is a disaster - only checked Swiss flights 2 weeks ago and was looking ok for August now no longer :-( ,
BMI website shows the flights going Basel-Heathrow, Heathrow-Manchester with quite long travel times. Swiss via Zurich approx 950chf for three people when we need to go. KLM not looking bad at approx 740chf via amsterdam, travel time approx 4.5-5.5 hours. The Basel flight with Swiss was going to be approx 650chf anyway so KLM not a bad option.

Had confirmation in an email from BMI that they won't be taking over the direct flight after 20 May so it will be via Heathrow.

This is a complete disaster!

Even as a Londoner myself, its embarassing how much choice we will have as of June

07:00
07:15
07:25
08:30
12:25
16:10
17:45
18:05
20:10
21:10

BSL > London (All Airports)

They'll still be doing Zürich it seems but only three flights per day.

Pain in the bum for Basel though.

Cheers,
Nick

Is it really such an un- economical flight. Both the easy jet and Swiss flights seemed to be popular whenever I took them and now both have gone. Guess it will mean flying via Zurich which is ok if you get the train connection but the Basel Zurich flight is a joke on a number of levels and if you don't take it they make you pay extra when you get to Zurich.

we have just booked BMI from Basel to Manchester (in the summer), which will go via Heathrow, came in about 400chf cheaper than swiss from Zurich (for three people), have to stop at heathrow for a short time, but if you factor in getting from where I live to SBB then a train to Zurich etc, not much difference timewise in the end. Another option is KLM from Basel via Amsterdam, again if you chose carefully and willing to have a small stopover, still works out alot cheaper than Swiss from Zurich.

noticed that Easyjet start Basel to Manchester from november!

More jubilating northerners can be found in this thread:

easyJet starting Basel-Manchester