McCarran poised to welcome Edelweiss Air’s first local flight

It has been awhile since McCarran International Airport has welcomed a new overseas air carrier to town, so expect the smiles to be a little broader when Edelweiss Air’s first flight touches down and passes through a celebratory water arch early this afternoon.

Edelweiss, a small subsidiary of the world’s fourth-largest airline, starts twice-a-week passenger service between Zurich and Las Vegas, becoming the 14th international carrier at McCarran.

It’s a perfect kickoff for National Travel and Tourism Week, which is being observed this week by the industry. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will stage a community tourism rally at the Mob Museum on Tuesday night, and residents might see well-recognized attractions adopt the industry’s blue color scheme.

The High Roller observation wheel, New York-New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and Chrysler Building, and Las Vegas City Hall will go blue, and the Krispy Kreme franchise will sell blue doughnuts at its Spring Mountain store.

But today at McCarran, red will be the color of choice for Edelweiss.

The airline is considered a charter carrier but will operate scheduled flights. It’s a leisure travel-centered operator owned by Swiss International Air Lines, a subsidiary of Germany’s largest airline, Lufthansa.

Unlike some of its small European brethren at McCarran, Edelweiss expects to continue service on a scaled-back basis through the off season, cutting flights to once a week during the winter months.

Other small international airlines have had mixed results with their forays into Las Vegas.

Air Berlin served up nonstop flights between Dusseldorf, Germany, and Las Vegas two years ago but dropped the route when it enhanced its partnership with American Airlines, which wanted the airline to focus on American hub cities.

Arkefly, a small Dutch carrier, had nonstop flights between Amsterdam and Las Vegas, scaling them back to seasonal operations a year ago.

Last fall, the company notified McCarran that Arkefly wouldn’t be back in 2014.

XL Airways France began nonstop flights from Paris to Las Vegas in 2010, establishing a pattern of bulking up during the peak season in July and August.

A new entrant to the Las Vegas market, Air Europa, will try the same strategy from Madrid starting in July. Air Europa will fly Airbus A330 jets between Madrid and Las Vegas once a week for two months.

One of the longtime small European carriers that has maintained success is Condor, which pushes its high seasonal lift to three flights a week in the summer, flying from Frankfurt, Germany, to Las Vegas.

Tourism experts have high hopes for Edelweiss for several reasons: It has a strong sales network through its associations with Swiss International and Lufthansa, its national Swiss tourism network is marketing travel to Switzerland from the United States, and Edelweiss’ typical customers spend more than their European counterparts.

Switzerland Tourism, a marketing organization that promotes visits to the country best known for cheese, chocolate, mountain vistas and alpine lakes, was in Las Vegas last month to drum up support for the new Edelweiss route.

Edelweiss will operate 285-passenger twin-engine Airbus A330 jets on the route with flights scheduled Fridays and Mondays.

The airline is expecting to take delivery of bigger A330s by June that will offer lie-flat beds in business class.

The Friday-Monday arrival schedule is perfect for McCarran, which sees a large volume of international traffic on Thursdays and Sundays.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow him on Twitter @RickVelotta.