Travel agents given “thankyou” gift for cancelled SWISS flights

Thousands of passengers have been affected by flight cancellations. © Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

Swiss International Air Lines has agreed to offer travel agents CHF10 ($10) “thankyou” payments for flights cancelled from its schedule this summer.

SWISS was forced to scrap around 2% of its scheduled flights in the summer months because it did not have enough staff to cope with renewed demand for travel as coronavirus lockdowns ended.

In June, SWISS said about 10,000 passengers would be directly hit by the cancellations, while about 20,000 others would be offered alternative options.

Some of these flights were booked through travel agents, sparking demands for compensation. On Monday, the airline said it had reached a solution with the Swiss Travel Association.

The CHF10 payments do not constitute compensation but are a thankyou for the extra work caused by the cancellations, SWISS said.

“Out of a total of more than 190,000 flights in the summer timetable, 994 flights booked by travel agency partners were affected by cancellations or delays,” the airline told Keystone-SDA.

SWISS later announced that more flights this autumn would be affected by staff shortages. Normal operations are not expected to return until next year when new recruits can be found and trained.

Critics have accused the SWISS management of miscalculating the situation after it initially announced 780 layoffs last year but later had to review the figure to 550.