The image of a fully flexible full-time captain whose partner takes care of the children alone is long outdated. However, Swiss still creates its rollout plans at the last minute and doesn’t provide any fixed days off, even for part-time employees – that’s outdated. Other professional groups, including nurses, bus drivers, or doctors, feel the same way, but that in itself is no reason not to be angry.
However, pilots must be careful with their strike threat or they will lose all sympathy. Because the solidarity and understanding of their problems is not that great: with many years of experience, they earn more than 200,000 francs a year. A salary that other professions can only dream of. The fact that travel is one of the professional privileges of pilots makes many people green with envy.
In addition, “regular” employees have an average of 8.6 days off per month, plus any public holidays. Pilots on short haul flights have an average of 9.8 days off per month and 11.5 on long haul flights. Pilots only know when they are free on short notice. The bottom line is that they still work less than many others. Given these conditions, pilots would do well to have a little more thrust.