Switzerland not planning new targets until 2024

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Air traffic is reviving. “We’re not there yet when it comes to punctuality,” Switzerland Chief Commercial Officer Tamur Goudarzi Pour said in a media interview Wednesday. The main reason for this is structural bottlenecks in air traffic control, as well as many strikes in Germany, Italy and France. Additionally, main hub airports will have to deal with restrictions that will affect Switzerland’s flight schedule.

“We still assume we can fly steadily in the summer,” said Goudarzi Pour. Larger scale cuts are not expected. A relatively large fleet of chartered aircraft also contributes to this. There are currently 14 aircraft from Helvetic, two from Edelweiss and eight from Air Baltic. The reason for this is 8 Airbus A220 Swiss aircraft that could not take off due to the engine manufacturer’s inability to supply important spare parts.

No direct connection to Beijing

Due to the current constraints on the supply side, “network depth” has the highest priority, i.e. combining the existing offer with more frequencies rather than opening new destinations. An example of this is China. Air traffic to Shanghai resumed here in the spring. From the end of October, there will again be six flights per week in the winter flight schedule. Seven connections are planned for Hong Kong.

But in the short term there will be no direct connection from Zurich to Beijing. A separate decision will be made later on whether to start traffic to the Chinese capital. However, demand for flights to and from China is good and growing. The recent removal of corona tests may accelerate demand again. Overall, Goudarzi Pour is looking forward to a good summer despite limited capacity.

Initially, long-distance new connections should not be either. New destinations could only be added again in 2024. “We want to connect more global metropolises to Switzerland,” said Goudarzi Pour. You will be informed accordingly in a few months.

1800 vacancies

Switzerland is now able to keep its operations at 86 percent of pre-crisis level thanks to its high leasing rate – with good overall capacity utilization. Goudarzi Pour did not want to ignore the possibility of reaching the value of 2019 again for 2024; It’s still too early to make an exact guess. But overall he was very optimistic about this and next year.

To cope with the growth, Swiss plans to continue to hire large numbers of staff. 1,800 people will be hired this year alone. There should be 1,000 more by 2024. Applicants are also doing well and the airline receives many applications. According to Goudarzi Pour, almost all areas are leased on land, in the air, and also in administration. (SDA(pbe/rae)

Source :Blick