While Swiss is facing a major shortage of cabin crew, the German-speaking press revealed on Saturday that the Lufthansa subsidiary has signed an aircraft rental contract including staff with the Latvian airline airBaltic.
This is a new episode in the summer turbulence of the Swiss company, which had to cancel many flights for lack of cabin crew.
>> Read also: Lack of staff still forces Swiss to cut flights this summer
The Lufthansa subsidiary has called on the low-cost airline airBaltic, owned by the Latvian state, to rent six planes and personnel for its rotations this winter, explains the Blick Saturday.
The information was confirmed by the commercial director of Swiss, who assures that this new kind of collaboration will “increase planning security for customers”.
Complaints to OFAC
This strategy aims to avoid flight cancellations due to lack of staff. This summer, these cancellations affected more than 10,000 passengers at Swiss and its sub-companies Helvetic Airways and Edelweiss Air.
Many passengers have thus decided to file a complaint with the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (OFAC), also reveals the CH-Media group on Saturday. According to Luzerner Zeitungthere were twice as many in July as at the beginning of the year.
When a complaint is filed, the airline is obliged to take a position and often pays the compensation due, which can range from 250 to 600 francs per ticket for a cancellation depending on the case.
Vincent Stöcklin/iar