Spare parts shortage: Why does the Latvian Air Baltic Company continue to fly Switzerland?

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In some cases, anyone booking a flight from Switzerland will encounter a green surprise: instead of the Swiss cross on the aircraft’s tail fin, there will be the “Baltic” emblem on a bright green background. In some cases they allow Swiss airline Latvian Air Baltic to fly for them.

Switzerland launched this partnership at the beginning of the year due to staff shortages following the Corona crisis. It’s over though. However, things will continue like this in the Baltics for a while. In the summer flight program, eight Baltic aircraft will fly to Switzerland by the end of October. As of October, there are still four Baltic aircraft from Swiss airline Helvetic and an average of eight aircraft per week, as Switzerland confirmed upon request.

“Classic fare reduction!”

According to the “Aargauer Zeitung”, this situation does not go well for the Kapers cabin union. He sums it up in one word: “Shameful!” And even more bluntly: “This is classic wage-cutting.” In the summer of 2022, Switzerland announced that it would outsource flights to the Latvian airline. The reason was clear: Despite personnel shortages, the flight plan had to get back on track.

A positive side effect for Switzerland: flying cheaper. Baltic’s cabin crew do their jobs for between 900 and 1,500 euros a month. According to the report, there was great discontent among Swiss staff: they expressed their dissatisfaction in a letter to Swiss CEO Dieter Vranckx (50).

Eight Latvian aircraft in use

But the pointed note of protest did not yield much result. Because, according to CH Media newspapers, cooperation with the Latvians is not over yet. “We will continue our cooperation with Air Baltic, probably in the summer of 2024,” a Swiss spokesman said. So why is Switzerland running out of planes?

Several A320neos on the ground

The Swiss spokesman is talking about the problems that have existed for a while in the engines of the US company Pratt & Whitney, which are installed on Switzerland’s A320neo aircraft. There has been a shortage of spare parts worldwide for a long time.

Additional checks are also required due to possible manufacturing errors. The situation is unlikely to improve quickly. A Swiss A320neo aircraft is currently grounded. However, Switzerland assumes that “a mid-single-digit number of aircraft from the A320neo family will not be available soon.” (pbe/smt)

Source :Blick