Thousands of UK holidaymaker's summer travel plans are in turmoil after a European airline cancelled 1,400 flights.
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has axed around 1.5 per cent of its scheduled departures until October 2025.
According to air passenger rights company AirAdvisor, as many as 50,000 UK passengers will be affected by the flight cancellations, including those with connecting and indirect itineraries.
AirAdvisor estimates that between 10 and 15 flights will be impacted daily, with UK to Switzerland routes out of Heathrow, London City, Manchester and Edinburgh representing up to 12 per cent of cancellations.
It added that SWISS’s cancellations will impact competitor airlines such as British Airways and easyJet as demand increases on short-haul routes to Zurich and Geneva.
Long-haul passengers bound for Shanghai and Chicago will also be impacted by the cancellations this summer.
Anton Radchenko, founder of AirAdvisor, said: “With this latest wave of SWISS cancellations, summer just got more complicated for UK travellers. We’re not seeing a demand problem but a staffing and scheduling bottleneck.
“Flights are getting axed not because people aren’t flying, but because airlines don’t have enough fully trained pilots to operate them.”
Pilot shortages particularly affect crews on A320, A321, A330, and A340 aircraft, reports Aviation24.
Travellers due to fly on the cancelled SWISS journeys are entitled to a full refund and free rerouting under EU261 regulation.
SWISS said: “SWISS currently has a shortage of pilots to ensure that all scheduled flights can be operated.”
It added: “We regret that we are unable to offer these connections as planned and will inform the customers affected as soon as possible.
“The changes to the flight schedule will be made as early as possible in order to minimize inconvenience to our passengers and find the best possible alternative solutions for them. We are doing everything in our power to achieve this. Our priority is to rebook passengers onto the next best alternative SWISS flight. If this is not possible, we will switch to other airlines in the Lufthansa Group.”
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