SWISS cancels hundreds of flights this summer due to pilot shortage

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights this summer due to a shortage of cockpit staff as well as technical and structural bottlenecks. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox A total of 326 flights will be cancelled, a SWISS spokesperson told the AWP news agency on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report by the industry online site Aerotelegraph. The cuts will affect around 0.4% of the airline's total flight offer. The problem has improved since last year when 1,400 flights had to be cancelled between April and October, or 1.5% of the total number of flights. SWISS, a Lufthansa subsidiary, is targeting labour-intensive long-haul routes, for example with reduced frequencies to Chicago and Shanghai. Eleven aircraft with engine problems SWISS has a shortage of captains and co-pilots for the Airbus A320 and A321 planes, as well as the A330 and A340, which are also tied up due to retraining for the new Airbus A350. In ...