SWISS Airspace to be temporarily closed - SWISS flights update
Saturday 17, April 2010
Swiss airspace is to be temporarily closed. There will thus be no further arrivals or departures at Zurich, Basel, Geneva or Lugano airports until further notice. In view of this, we were forced to cancel all SWISS departures from Switzerland for today Saturday 17 April.
For tomorrow Sunday 18 April, we had to cancel all European departures from Switzerland until 10:00 CET and all long-haul departures from Switzerland until 17:30 CET.
It is currently impossible to predict with any accuracy how Europe’s air services will continue to be affected by these ash cloud developments. We are confident, however, that flight operations can be resumed in Swiss airspace in the course of the weekend, as Switzerland lies on the edge of the area affected. We are in close contact with the authorities and airports involved, and will keep its customers fully updated.
If your flight has been cancelled, please do not come to the airport.
Rebookings for affected flights
If you have booked any of these flights via swiss.com or a SWISS Service Centerand were not already contacted by SWISS, please call our Service Center directly. In view of the present situation, however, and the large volumes of calls that the Service Centers are receiving, it may take some time for their call or email to be answered.
If you booked your flight via a travel agency and wish to rebook, please contact the agency concerned.
Rebooking conditions
Customers with a SWISS booking for between 15 and 19 April who find that their flight is cancelled may rebook free of charge onto a later SWISS flight in the same booking category, provided they start their new travel by 31 May. Such customers who do not wish to rebook will have their fare refunded in full.
SWISS would like to point out, for good order’s sake, that SWISS is not liable for any further claims, such as overnight accommodation or any compensatory damage amounts. This is because the flights concerned have had to be cancelled for force majeure reasons, and not through any fault on SWISS’s part.
SWISS is, however, voluntarily striving to offer overnight accommodation to customers who are currently away from home wherever possible. This offer is presently limited to the night of tonight (Saturday) to Sunday; a further decision here will be taken tomorrow, depending on the situation. Here, too, we would like to emphasise that SWISS is taking this action voluntarily to assist its customers, and there is no automatic entitlement to accommodation of this kind.
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