Swiss poised to announce further cuts and pivot to leisure markets

Lufthansa Group carrier Swiss is set to announce a further reduction in the size of its business and an increased focus on leisure markets, according to the airline’s CE, Dieter Vranckx. Building on comments made at the end of March, when he hinted at more job cuts, Vranckx told the Routes Reconnected conference on 26 April that Swiss will “become smaller and not bigger”. Those changes will reflect a need to “adjust our size according to the market structure and market size”, he states, while reconfirming that an announcement with further details can be expected imminently. Swiss had already announced in October last year the loss of 1,000 jobs from its pre-crisis workforce of around 10,500 employees at Swiss and leisure unit Edelweiss Air. Then-CE Thomas Kluhr suggested further cuts could be necessary if a significant recovery in demand was not evident by the end of Q1 2021. Swiss’s financial results for that period are due to be announced on 29 April.<br/>