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Swiss loses around 1.5 million francs every day: travel restrictions, quarantine rules and the fear of sitting next to someone positive on the plane are causing customers to avoid air travel. What is the solution?
Before Thomas Klühr resigns and moves to the Swiss Aviation Foundation in January, he takes a position.
Thomas Klühr
CEO of Switzerland
SRF: To get the passengers back, the European airline industry recently demanded the immediate lifting of quarantine in all countries. That is an impossible dream.
Thomas Klühr: That’s true, but we would also like to see the quarantine rules ended. They cause us incredible problems, make customers uneasy and don’t allow for reliable flight plans. Other uniform rules would be urgent.
We have a clear demand: evidence rather than quarantine.
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr has high hopes that due to vaccines, more flights will be flown again in the summer of 2021. Are you equally elated?
I don’t think we’re all euphoric. There are opportunities, but you have to prepare to make it last longer. But there is hope that it will be easier in the summer.
There will be some form of digital evidence.
Like the Australian airline Qantas, do you think mandatory vaccinations make sense?
No, I don’t think it makes sense. It is not the job of the airlines to require vaccinations. It is up to the national authorities to clarify this. Globally organized and standardized vaccination records would help us, but that needs to be resolved politically.
WHO would like to establish an internationally recognized digital vaccination certificate and is currently testing it in Estonia. Do you think such a vaccination certificate will come?
Yes, in any case. There are different initiatives, we are working on one with the WEF. There will be some form of digital evidence.
That would mean that the population would be forced to get vaccinated for flights.
The question is whether it could only work through a vaccination test or even through trial tests. Customers would have a choice.
We have lost 30 percent in the cargo area and more than 60 percent in the passenger area.
Switzerland also cares about vaccines in another aspect, it also transports them. How much can that make up for the theft?
We certainly can’t make up for it. We have lost 30 percent in the cargo area and more than 60 percent in the passenger area. We are losing too much on the passenger side.
In Switzerland, around 10 per cent of jobs will be eliminated in the next two years, or around 1,000 jobs. at So could there be more bad news for the workforce in January or February?
A clear picture will only be available in March, such as reservations, travel rules, vaccination procedures regarding the summer business. We will have to hold back until 2023/2024 when it comes to new hires.
The labor force has to save, it is shrinking in size, Switzerland receives state aid and, at the same time, its trading partners have decided to receive the bonus for 2019.
This bonus was removed from fiscal year 2019. 2019 was one of the best years for Switzerland, in which the bonus was paid to all groups of employees; This is contractually stipulated and is not a classic bonus, but part of the salary that is measured in terms of goals, earnings, and customer feedback. It is mostly paid in March. For 2019, we were only able to pay this amount in August 2020.
I’m sure we can do it.
My colleagues contractually waive the bonus this year and the following years. Like me. I deferred my compensation until we had repaid the federal loan, sending a clear signal: I’m sure we can do it.
The interview was conducted by Eveline Kobler.
