Hundreds of Swiss want to leave Israel: the next special flight will leave on Wednesday

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After the attacks on Israel, Swiss tourists just want to leave. The outbound flight of the first Swiss special flight to Tel Aviv is currently in the air. The return flight to Zurich on Tuesday evening has been fully booked for some time. It is now clear: tomorrow, Wednesday, the second special flight will take place.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (EDA) of Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis (62) had asked Swiss to carry out further special flights. Blick knows: the airline is now fulfilling this wish.

Already fully booked again!

On Wednesday at 1:05 p.m., an Airbus A321neo with 215 seats will depart from Tel Aviv for the return flight to Zurich. He lands there as planned at 5:25 PM. According to reports from Swiss tourists who want to return, this flight is already fully booked!

Apart from the special flights, Swiss has canceled all scheduled flights to and from Tel Aviv until Saturday. It is currently unclear whether Swiss will operate any more special flights. The airline wants the EDA to provide a list of Swiss nationals who want to leave the country. This would make planning a lot easier. The airline could – possibly in consultation with Helvetic Airways and Edelweiss Air – create the currently necessary capacity as quickly as possible.

28,000 Swiss citizens in Israel

Foreign Minister Cassis regretted on Tuesday evening that more capacity was not possible for the first special flight. “We will see that capacity will be created in the coming days and hours,” he promised. But the airlines also have to find staff and aircraft first.

In any case, the planning was not as simple as the federal government had initially thought. Swiss had made it clear before the first special flight that they could not just fly to Tel Aviv and book people as usual. Because then the airline would probably have had on board not only people from Switzerland on the return flight, but also countless tourists from the US, France and other countries. However, the purpose of the special flights is mainly to bring back Swiss citizens. If there were still free seats on the planes, it would be clear that passengers from other countries would also be taken on board.

And if the residents want to return?

Currently, more than 600 people are said to have registered with the EDA for a return flight from Israel. An accident occurred on the first special flight on Tuesday: an EDA employee had announced the special flight via the helpline on Monday morning, although Swiss still had to make safety clarifications on Monday afternoon, meaning that only a final decision on whether or not to fly to Israel could be made.

Experience shows that when there is a crisis, holiday travelers are the first to want to leave the country immediately. How long it will take before the Swiss who have settled in Israel for a longer period of time will follow suit remains to be seen. It is said that 28,000 Swiss citizens live in Israel. A few special flights would hardly help them.

Source:Blick