KLM planning to retire B747-400 Combi fleet from 2016

Swiss cancels hundreds more flights this summer

Swiss (LX, Zurich) has cancelled hundreds more flights - this time between August and October 2022 - to ease growing capacity constraints on its schedule and the country's airport system as the high summer season approaches.

A total of 676 flights representing 2% of the airline's planned flight programme of 31,414 services between August and October are affected, Swiss announced in a statement. The move, it said, would minimise the risk of short-notice cancellations or schedule modifications.

The airline already cut about 100 flights in July and August affecting around 30,000 passengers.

Sister carrier Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) has slashed about 3,000 flights at its Frankfurt Int'l and Munich hubs during the summer. Traffic bottlenecks at European airports have also forced capacity cuts at Eurowings, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and easyJet, amongst others.

Swiss said it was responding to "huge operational challenges" and a "very tense situation" throughout the airline industry, following rising COVID infections in some European countries, significant capacity constraints, and strikes at...

Lufthansa cancels further flights at Frankfurt, Munich

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l) has cancelled a further 2,200 of a total of around 80,000 flights at its hubs in Frankfurt Int'l and Munich for the summer following staff shortages resulting from short-notice sick calls from crews in the wake of increased COVID-19 infections in Germany.

"The cancellations will affect domestic German and intra-European flights in particular, but not the classic vacation destinations that are well booked during the vacation season. In addition, there may also be changes to the flight departure times," the airline said in a statement.

A few weeks ago, Lufthansa already removed more than 900 flights from the system for July, which affected schedules on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Subsidiary Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) was also forced to take several hundred flights out of the system to stabilise its service for July, while Swiss (LX, Zurich) cancelled about 100 flights in July and August, affecting around 30,000 passengers.

This comes as the aviation industry, especially in Europe, struggles with airport bottlenecks and staff shortages,...

Finnair aid cleared as Ryanair loses legal challenge

Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) has lost another attempt to halt European Union approval of state aid to Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa), after Europe’s Luxembourg-based General Court said it had dismissed its action in its entirety.

In June 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on every airline, the European Commission cleared the Finnish government’s plans to contribute to the flag carrier’s recapitalisation by subscribing to new shares in a rights issue to the tune of EUR286 million euros (USD326 million at the time).

The antitrust regulator had justified this by saying: “Finnair ensures the essential domestic and international connectivity needs of Finland. Given the geographical location of the country, the national economy, many jobs, and the development of foreign trade rely on these services.”

Ryanair launched legal action against the commission on the grounds that it had neglected to initiate a formal investigation into the aid despite doubts it should have had about the compatibility of the aid with the rules of the EU’s internal market. According to the low-cost carrier, the...

KLM holds Amsterdam Schipol responsible for losses

Although it will not have to cancel its existing bookings on a major scale, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) says it holds Amsterdam Schiphol responsible for the financial impact arising from the embattled airport’s decision to cut 13,500 seats daily between July 6 and August 28, 2022.

The Dutch national carrier was responding to an announcement by Schipol that it was forced to limit daily passenger throughput during the peak summer holiday period due to continued security staff shortages. The maximum number of travellers at Schiphol are expected to peak at 67,500 on the busiest days in July and up to 72,500 in August. At this stage, there are 13,500 daily seats too many for the airport’s security capacity.

In reaction, KLM said it opposed the measures in principle and stressed they were “highly detrimental”. “It should be a one-off, short-term solution. KLM finds it unacceptable that the airport’s users should have to structurally bear the burden of capacity problems at Schiphol,” the airline said in a statement.

“KLM has cooperated with...