Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has reported “mixed results” for this year’s summer holiday season. Although almost all scheduled flights could be carried out, it experienced numerous delays.
“The stability of our flight operations was pleasing, but punctuality was not,” said Oliver Buchhofer, SWISS’s head of operations, on Friday.
He said conservative planning using buffers – for example by rostering more reserve crews and providing reserve aircraft – had paid off, both in terms of aircraft and staff. The stability of flight operations was correspondingly high: SWISS said it had been able to operate 98.9% of scheduled flights during the summer holidays.
From July 15 to August 15, the Lufthansa subsidiary operated a total of 12,870 flights. However, almost half of these (48%) were not punctual – defined by SWISS as taking off within 15 minutes of the scheduled time of departure.
When it came to arrivals, a quarter of flights were delayed – touching down more than 30 minutes after the scheduled time of arrival. “We did not live up to our standards here,” Buchhofer admitted.