British ‘low-cost’ airline easyJet will launch two new routes linking Portugal to Switzerland this year – one connecting Lisbon and Zurich and the other Funchal (Madeira) and Basel.
The Lisbon-Zurich air link begins on August 31 and will include three weekly flights.
The airline’s commercial director for Portugal, José Lopes says it will “serve the corporate market” and intends to strengthen the country’s link to the Portuguese communities in Switzerland.
The route linking Madeira to Basel only begins on December 1 and will feature just one weekly flight.
Tickets for both routes are already available online at www.easyjet.com
Speaking to journalists during a press conference in Lisbon, Lopes also announced a partnership with the G Air Training Centre that will see the airline hiring pilots trained in Portugal.
Lopes explained easyJet is looking to invest in Portugal, both to increase the number of planes that fly to and from the country as well as its number of pilots.
“On the day we decide to add another plane to our fleet, we will have to hire 40 extra people,” he said.
Still, the only concrete goal easyJet has set thus far is to reach the five-million passenger mark in Portugal by September.
With these two new air links to Switzerland, easyjet offers 55 routes in Portugal.
Despite all the positive news, easyJet has complained that Terminal 2 at Lisbon Airport looks like a “worksite” due to renovations that were carried out recently and has already informed national airport authority ANA of its concerns.
