A major European airline is offering crew members more than £14,000 to voluntarily hand in their notice, reports reveal. Swiss Airlines, a subsidiary of Austrian Airlines, launched a pay-out plan this month to cut staff amid weak operating efficiencies. Flight attendants who voluntarily resign or go on temporary leave by April 30 will receive a lump sum of 15,000 Swiss francs (£14,249). Independent Report.
Around 4,000 crew members based at the airline’s Zurich site have been offered the payout, with employees who have worked at the firm for more than six years given a similar incentive to enter into a “passive employment relationship” of at least one year. A Swiss Airlines spokesperson said the additional crew numbers were linked to engine problems and a shortage of cockpit staff, meaning fewer flights were being operated than initially planned.
He added: “Since last summer, we have already been offering our cabin crew voluntary options such as unpaid leave, personal time off, or short-notice reductions in working hours.
“These past months have shown that many colleagues use these options when they best fit their individual circumstances.”
“The deployment requirements of our cabin crew are constantly changing – depending on the flight schedule, weather and operational developments,” Swiss Airlines told national news agency AFP.
“Currently, we believe that in a few months our team will temporarily have more than 300 cabin crew members that we can currently deploy in flight operations.
“We expect this situation to gradually normalize in the coming months and reach equilibrium again by the beginning of 2027.”
The limited flight operations are linked to issues with Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000G geared turbofan engines, which power Swiss Airlines’ Airbus A220, A320neo and A321neo fleet.
As well as a shortage of pilots, the carrier is reportedly feeling the fallout of ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which has created travel chaos in recent weeks.
While the airline has said it hopes to rapidly reduce staff levels through voluntary redundancy schemes, a spokesperson acknowledged that forced job cuts may also be needed as a “last resort”.
