Airline in crisis – New Swiss CEO: “The market will look different after Corona” – News

The pandemic hit the Swiss airline hard. It has reported an operating loss of 654 million francs for 2020. Switzerland’s passenger volume had dropped to a quarter of 2019 in 2020. In the previous year there was still a profit of 578 million francs. The new CEO Dieter Vranckx on the difficult situation of the airline.

Open the person boxClose the person box

The Belgian-Swiss dual citizenship has worked in various management positions in the airline industry since 1998. From 2013 to 2016 he was Head of Sales and Marketing in Switzerland, responsible for the Swiss, German and Austrian markets. Vranckx lives in the canton of Zurich, is married and has two children.

SRF News: You’ve been in office for two months, and that’s in the worst crisis in Switzerland. How difficult is it to start in a situation like this?

Dieter Vranckx: There are always two parts: on the one hand, knowing the employees and, on the other, the business. Getting to know employees while working from home is challenging. 2020 was an extremely difficult year. But we were able to connect Switzerland with the world with a minimal flight plan, which was extremely important for the freight business.

How serious is the Swiss currently?

Flight capacity is currently 20 percent, by the summer we expect that capacity can be increased to 65 percent. The constantly changing framework conditions are very drastic for us.

What will the Swiss be like in the next two years?

We are currently in crisis management. The other part concerns the alignment for the future, where we look at the years 2023 and 2024. It is clear that the market will look different after Corona, and this is where we have to think.

In Switzerland, 1,000 jobs will be eliminated, of which 500 have already been eliminated. How can one imagine this dismantling?

The reduction occurred through voluntary measures, for example through early retirement or non-replacement of employees leaving the company.

This year they plan to fly 50 percent of the previous year’s capacity. Couldn’t it also be that many more employees will have to be laid off in the next period?

We are glad that the tool of short-time work exists. Switzerland’s structural adjustment, also with regard to employees, is the subject for 2022 and 2023, that is, in the medium and long term. Therefore, it is difficult to use the 2021 capacity for these calculations.

The part-time work will last until mid-August. What does this mean for long-term planning in terms of personnel?

We will see what the new market conditions mean for us. What does less demand mean? What does less business travel mean? Most likely, there will be a reduction in staff corps.

Keyword vaccination pass: will only vaccinated people be allowed to fly with you starting in the summer?

For us it is not a vaccination pass, but a health pass. In this health passport, the vaccination, but also the test results must be visible. Ideally, such a passport should be uniform throughout the world.

Interview by Dennis Hoffmeyer.