The flag carrier airline of Switzerland, SWISS, has been forced to cut flights from its timetable this summer. The international company blamed worker shortages at the airline and at airports as the main reason for the cuts, which have now left 30.000 passengers without flights.
A spokesperson for the company said that 2 percent of flights leaving Switzerland will be affected by the cancellations. They confirmed that SWISS would cut five flights a week between Geneva and London, and will reduce the number of services between Zurich and Gdansk, Dresden, Warsaw and Los Angeles. All SWISS flights to Nuremberg will be also cancelled between July and October.
In addition to the cuts, SWISS confirmed that they will rely on other Star Alliance or Lufthansa Group members to fulfil some routes. The spokesperson said that some flights to Vienna from Switzerland will be taken over by Austrian Airlines and that, "For other passengers, individual solutions will be found, for example with changes to other flights within the Lufthansa Group or Star Alliance partners."
According to Blick, 10.000 passengers will be directly affected by the cancellations, and a further 20.000 will also be offered alternative flights. Customers affected by the disruption will be notified by email and will be able to rebook or refund their journeys.
Much like the disruption experienced by airlines and airports abroad like Schiphol Airport and Manchester Airport, the spokesperson for SWISS blamed the cancellations on “bottlenecks at air control centres, ground and airport services in Europe and at SWISS.”
This is the second time in two months that SWISS has been forced to announce route cancellations due to a shortage of staff. Trade unions in Switzerland have since accused the airline of miscalculating how many workers they need, after 550 SWISS employees lost their jobs earlier this year.