Airline COVID-19 capacity, network, staff cuts for 17-22MAR

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,...

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