The Swiss airline continues to lose massive amounts of money due to the pandemic.
Planes of the Swiss company immobilized in Kloten,
KEYSTONE/archive
Swiss, which has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, is still losing money massively and a return to profitable flights may take time, said Managing Director Thomas Klühr. A recovery is hoped for by summer 2021.
The national company has significantly reduced its losses since the end of containment, but currently the company is still losing less than 1 million francs per day, against 3 million per day at the height of the crisis, said the boss of Swiss in an interview. broadcast live on Wednesday on the 20 Minuten website.
“We are not yet in a position to carry out profitable flights”, he added, while the subsidiary of the German Lufthansa is at a reservation level of 20% compared to the period before the crisis.
Around two-thirds of the Swiss fleet is back in service, after an unprecedented immobilization of the devices at the height of the pandemic between mid-March and the end of May.
Mr Klühr admitted that he “faces huge challenges with the ongoing changes in travel regulations. Customers react to this by making their reservations at the last minute ”.
In this context, the resumption of the flight plan will take longer than expected, but the boss of Swiss said he was “optimistic” that the situation will recover by summer 2021.
A “tsunami” of cancellations
The airline was faced with a “tsunami” of cancellations, which fell from a rate of 1-2% normally to 99%. “We were not prepared for these volumes, but we have taken steps” to process the millions of requests, Mr. Klühr said. All refund requests received until the end of June will be processed by the end of August, he promised.
Swiss and its holiday travel subsidiary Edelweiss benefit from a state support plan of 1.5 billion francs. But the money has not yet arrived in the accounts of the airline. Thomas Klühr expects a first installment of around 100 million to be paid “in the next few days”.
The general manager however recalled that it was a loan, with an interest rate higher than 3%, that the company will endeavor to repay as quickly as possible.
While the management promised not to pronounce a dismissal, Mr. Klühr stressed that he could “not give any guarantee” on this subject, especially in the event of a second wave or a delayed resumption of flights to the North America.
Swiss publishes its half-year results on Thursday and they should be heavily impacted by the Covid-19. In the first quarter, the airline suffered an operating loss of 84.1 million francs, after an operating profit of 48.3 million a year earlier.
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