Frustration for 600 Swiss passengers on Thursday evening at Zurich Airport. As a news scout reports, he sat on the plane with his family for around 2.5 hours. “Then it suddenly said that we had not received permission to take off, so we had to leave the plane once more.”
Long queues had formed in front of the Swiss service desks, the news scout continues. “We are traveling with a small child and are slowly getting on edge.” The plan was to attend Adele’s concert in London on Friday evening. Now the family hopes to be able to stay in a hotel for the night and fly to the English capital the next morning. “However, we have been informed that there will be no flights to London for the morning,” said the frustrated news scout. The Swiss hotline is overloaded, and only three service desks are open.
Upon request of 20 minutes, Swiss confirmed that flights had to be cancelled. There were three return flights. “The reason was limited capacity at European air traffic control due to a lack of staff and the weather conditions,” says Swiss spokeswoman Sonja Ptassek. The departure slots had been pushed back so much that the planes might no longer land in Zurich in time before the night flight closure.
The flights to Düsseldorf, London City and London Heathrow were affected. “In addition, a Swiss plane was struck by lightning in Luxembourg,” Ptassek continued. This is usually not a problem, but for safety reasons an affected aircraft is subjected to a technical check following such an event.
“Whenever possible, the passengers affected by the flight cancellations will be informed by SMS regarding a rebooking. At the airport, the employees organize hotel accommodation and meals,” said the Swiss spokeswoman. Larger aircraft will be used for Friday morning on the Zurich-London route.