Die Swiss beendet die Kooperation mit Air Baltic, setzt aber weiterhin auf ungeliebte Partnerschaften
Die Fluggesellschaft will wieder mehr eigene Flieger einsetzen. Doch ohne fremde Maschinen kommt sie auch längerfristig nicht aus: Die Zusammenarbeit mit Helvetic Airways wird ausgebaut.
Swiss Airline has ended its collaboration with Air Baltic, but remains committed to unpopular partnerships. The airline aims to use more of its own aircraft, but without foreign machines, it cannot operate in the long term. Swiss will continue to partner with Helvetic Airways, despite passengers often being surprised by an Air Baltic jet instead of a Swiss one.
The union with Air Baltic began due to maintenance shortages from Pratt-&-Whitney, which caused delays with modern Airbus jets. Additionally, Swiss lacked pilots. However, the airline now has enough crews available. In total, Swiss can deploy seven additional aircraft from its Airbus A320 family. The dismantling of the partnership with Air Baltic occurs at a critical time, as Swiss expects passenger demand and flight numbers to continue rising in the coming years.
On the positive side, Swiss A320 family aircraft have more seats than Air Baltic's Airbus A220 aircraft, allowing Swiss to offer more seats on many routes without needing extra planes. Swiss still needs external partners to transport all its passengers and plans to expand its collaboration with Helvetic Airways. The airline will use 17 of Helvetic's aircraft, with the possibility of adding more as demand grows.
Swiss acknowledges that Helvetic's Embraer planes may not offer the same comfort as Swiss planes, due to factors such as seat spacing and internet availability. Helvetic is working on acquiring the necessary airworthiness certification for their Embraer aircraft, while Swiss upgrades its own fleet with Starlink satellite network.
Written by urgent.news from NZZ Wirtschaft's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
