Swiss Air Lines is offering thousands of cabin crew over £14,000 to voluntarily resign in an effort to reduce its staff surplus as it is operating fewer flights than planned.
The European carrier, a subsidiary of Austrian Airlines, has been offering flight attendants a payout for voluntary resignation or temporary leave.
Cabin crew who voluntarily terminate their contracts by 30 April will receive a pro-rated lump sum payment of 15,000 Swiss francs (£14,249), a Swiss spokesperson told The Independent.
This payout is being offered to all approximately 4,000 cabin crew at the airline’s Zurich base.
A payment will also be made to employees who have been at the company for six years or more if they enter a “dormant employment relationship” of at least one year. This will allow for a guaranteed return after the leave of absence.
“Since last summer, we have already been offering our cabin crew voluntary options such as unpaid leave, individual time off, or short-notice reductions in working hours,” the spokesperson said. “These past months have shown that many colleagues make use of these options when they align well with their personal circumstances.”
They added that layoffs are not currently planned, but would be a “last resort” if the voluntary measures did not succeed.
Swiss said that the surplus of cabin crew is due to ongoing engine problems and a continuing shortage of cockpit crew, meaning it is currently operating fewer flights than planned.
“The deployment requirements of our cabin crews are constantly changing – depending on the flight schedule, season and operational developments. Currently, we assume that in some months we will have up to 300 more cabin crew members temporarily on the team than we can currently deploy in flight operations,” the spokesperson told Swiss news agency AFP.
“We expect this situation to gradually normalise in the coming months and to balance out again by the beginning of 2027 at the latest.”
The payout was only offered last week, so the airline said it was too early to tell how many will accept the voluntary resignation.
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