Airline COVID-19 capacity, network, staff cuts 30MAR-05APR

Swiss to wet-lease A220s for Winter 2022/23

Swiss (LX, Zurich) has announced it will wet-lease up to six A220-300s from airBaltic (BT, Riga) for the Winter 2022/23 season, alongside an ongoing capacity purchase agreement with Helvetic Airways (2L, Zurich).

"This collaboration with airBaltic will enable us to further stabilise our own flight schedules and give our customers even greater reliability for making their travel plans. On top of this, it should also help further relieve the present pressures on our cabin crew corps," Chief Commercial Officer Tamur Goudarzi Pour said.

The airline underlined that the wet-lease would be operationally efficient thanks to fleet commonality. Swiss operates nine A220-100s and twenty-one -300s, making it Europe's second-largest operator of the family behind airBaltic (which has thirty-six -300s in its fleet).

Swiss does not operate any regional or small narrowbody aircraft in-house. It wet-leases a substantial fleet of Embraer regional jets from Helvetic Airways under a long-term partnership covering a minimum of six aircraft with more added depending on demand. In the current summer season, Helvetic...

Hungary's Wizz Air cuts capacity over airport crisis

Citing "ongoing external disruptions", Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) expects to cut flights by a further 5% this summer to reduce the impact on its services amid staff shortages, strikes, and bottlenecks at major European airports.

"In total, for the peak summer period, we expect to reduce utilisation by a further 5% versus the plan outlined at the full year results to reduce the impact of ongoing external disruptions. We now expect summer ASK (available seat kilometre) growth to be around 35% versus F20," the airline said in a first quarter trading update.

The Hungarian budget carrier said it is adjusting its schedules "where we have seen a higher occurrence of issues (e.g. slot allocation issues, turn-around timings)….to be able to avoid cancellations and secure a more punctual operation for our customers".

The airline is following in the footsteps of several other carriers, which have been forced to cut capacity as the ongoing staffing crisis at airports hampers them from taking advantage of a resurge in travel demand following COVID-19. Among those affected are KLM Royal...

Lufthansa cancels 770 more peak hour flights

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...