Swiss European pilots returned to flight duties this morning. Although a further 14 morning flights had to be cancelled as a direct consequence of yesterday’s strike, SWISS flight operations are now completely back to normal.
The strike organised yesterday by the Swiss Pilots union severely impaired SWISS flight operations in Europe. The effects of the strike carried over to this morning with the cancellation of another 14 flights. In total, SWISS was forced to cancel 142 flights (or 71 round trips) within Europe.
The strike by Swiss European Pilots disrupted the travel of approximately 8900 passengers. To limit the impact on travellers as much as possible, SWISS rebooked them on to other flights, purchased capacity from other airlines, distributed railway tickets and deployed larger aircraft on heavily travelled routes. Hotel accommodation was found for the 120 people who could not reach their destination yesterday.
Extra staff attended to passengers at airports. SWISS set up an additional ten ticket counters at ZurichAirport. A special telephone hotline and extra personnel on duty at the CallCenter kept waiting times to a minimum. The website page www.swiss.com/strike provided passengers with the latest information regarding the impact of the strike on flight operations.
SWISS deeply regrets that, by striking, Swiss Pilots chose to manifest their labour dispute at the expense of the airline’s customers.
The following flights were cancelled today:
LX1639 Milan – Zurich
LX771 Brussels – Zurich
LX1029 Düsseldorf – Zurich
LX2991 Basel – Zurich
LX819 Hannover – Zurich
LX2801 Geneva – Zurich
LX420/1 Zurich – Birmingham – Zurich
LX708/9 Basel – Amsterdam – Basel
LX 760/1 Basel – Brussels – Basel
LX2824/11 Zurich – Geneva – Zurich
SWISS Corporate Communications
Phone: +41 848 773 773
Fax: +41 44 564 21 27
communications@swiss.com
Swiss European Air Lines AG - Swiss European was founded on November 1, 2005, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SWISS. It operates flights in Europe on behalf of its parent company. Swiss European operates a fleet of 24 AVRO RJ 85/100 aircraft and currently employs 284 pilots.
