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In reality, the signs from the Swiss airline pointed to growth. The airline expanded and had a route network that spanned the world. Hard to imagine today.
Corona thwarted the Lufthansa subsidiary bill. “At the moment, we do not expect a full recovery and a return to the pre-crisis level until 2024,” the airline’s network chief Michael Trestl (36) tells BLICK.
Short-term cancellations remain
Until then, Corona has a firm grip on Switzerland. “The flight plan must be constantly updated, sometimes even several times a day,” explains Trestl.
Short-term cancellations are still the order of the day. “If countries change their entry rules, we have no choice but to cancel flights. Even if we were theoretically ready to fly, ”says Flight Operations Director Oliver Buchhofer (43).
Recovery under expectation
“The expected utilization for winter is 30 percent,” says Trestl. That is even below bad expectations. The bleak forecast also has an impact on employees.
“We have to save. It is not yet clear how we do this, based on early retirement or other commitments,” says Buchhofer. “Layoffs are the last resort.”
Salary negotiations with the pilots begin in October. On a scale of one to 10, Buchhofer is “seven to eight optimistic that the layoffs will not be necessary.”
Air traffic is returning
Before Swiss can fly normally again and the crown crisis is finally over, the Lufthansa subsidiary still has some hurdles to overcome. Above all, you have to cover the costs. “We are currently working on credit and we don’t have any more money of our own,” says Trestl, describing the difficult situation.
Despite the crisis, he does not believe that there will be big changes in the airline industry in the long term. This shows the behavior of the reservation. “As soon as a country is liberated again, the reserves increase again,” he says. “People will fly again as they did before the crisis.”
