UK strike could cause flight delays: check with your airline
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A public sector strike in Britain Wednesday 30 November is expected to cause slowdowns at border crossings, including airports, Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed. The impact on Geneva and Zurich airports is not yet clear, with BA and Swiss flights on schedule early in the morning, but passengers should check for updates on airlines’ sites:
Update Sunday 30 October 22:30 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Travellers’ alert: a court has ordered Qantas to resume flights and workers to go back to work after thousands were stranded by a strike Saturday. The Australian airline says it will resume flights Monday afternoon 31 October, Australian time.
Saturday 29 October grounded all flights worldwide, effective immediately, as it locked out three of its labour unions, including pilots and baggage handlers. The company is asking passengers not to go to the airport until further notice, but says it will refund ticket holders who want to cancel their flights.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 24-hour strike in Britain Thursday 30 June to protest planned pension cuts began to have an impact on flights in the UK Wednesday evening, as some UK Border Agency staff left their jobs. The strike is supported by three teachers unions and a public services union, so hundreds of schools, courts and job centres are closed Thursday.
Travellers are being told they will not be affected if leaving the UK, but arriving travellers using airports and ferry docks should expect delays Thursday.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Air Lingus, BA and Ryanair late Monday canceled several flights from Ireland and England to Scotland, with volcanic ash threatening northern Europe’s skies following the latest volcanic eruption in Iceland. Grimsvoetn in southeastern Iceland began to spew ash late Saturday 23 May and weather forecasters say ash could reach Scotland Tuesday, forcing airlines to cancel. The volcano is said by experts to most likely be Iceland’s strongest since the 1950s. The rest of the British Isles may be spared the ash for now, thanks to southeasterly winds.
Scotland was also hit by unseasonable weather, with winds gusting up to 150mph, power lines down and ferries and rail lines forced to close. One person died when a tree fell on his car and at the height of the storm 50,000 people were without electricity.
US President Barack Obama was able to travel from Ireland to England for the next leg of his European visit, despite storms and ash clouds to the north.
Links to other sites: Irish Times, The Scotsman
Where to put the bottles, in the bag or on the plane: mix of rules after 29 April
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Aviation Office will not change current policy covering what liquids airline passengers may carry on board, it announced Thursday 21 April.
Some European Union countries are easing their policies, the Swiss office notes, but Switzerland, after reviewing the situation, will maintain current regulations.
The decision means that passengers transfering through Switzerland, who have boarded in a country where more liquids, purchased in duty free zones, are allowed on board, will not be able to board in Switzerland with those liquids.
Switzerland reviewed its regulations for security risks following a decision by the European Union to allow passengers, starting 29 April, to carry on board more than 100cc (1dl) of liquids purchased in airport duty free zones. Its decision not to follow the EU change follows similar decisions by France, Italy and the UK to maintain their tighter security restrictions.
The recent differing decisions means that passengers will be faced with a patchwork of regulations covering what liquids may or may not be taken onto a plane. Switzerland will allow passengers who have purchased liquids on board a plane from the following countries to take them on board when transferring: from the EU, US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, Iceland and Croatia.
The decision comes just days after the expected announcement that passengers will be able to buy duty free goods on arrival, and not just departure, from Swiss airports.
Geneva airport
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hainan Airlines, which will begin operating non-stop flights between Zurich and Beijing 31 May, is opening sales in Zurich 1 May with Aviareps handling bookings and service for the privately owned Chinese company.
Hainan Air will initially offer three flights a week, but this is scheduled to increase if the demand is strong enough.
Geneva to Amsterdam seats will increase by 14 percent on KLM this summer and Basel will have Swiss flights to Nice starting 1 July for an introductory fare of CHF99. Swiss is also adding 7 flights a week to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport from Basel 27 March, in addition to its current four from Zurich.
New rules issued for tighter security at Russia’s airports
The Russian government a week ago issued new security requirements for airports which will include checking that all cars have their papers in order and verifying individuals’ IDs before they enter an airport. Media in Moscow published the information Monday 7 February, noting that it was published a few days earlier by the government, but with no date set for implementing the new rules. The roles of various security groups and responsibilities for guarding different parts of the airport have been spelled out, an effort to remedy confusion that was harshly condemned by President Dmitry Medvedev in the wake of the Moscow Domodedovo Airport suicide bombing in January that killed 36 people.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
The northeastern US is snowed in by blizzards, and with the three main airports in New York closed down due to snow, travel throughout the country is disrupted. NPR reports that 2,000 flights were cancelled in New York alone, but the storm has brought gusting winds of up to 128kph and heavy snowfalls from Maine to the Carolinas, with 50cm of snow in New York. Tour buses had food and water delivered by police after the buses were stranded on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway because tow trucks couldn’t reach them with five foot drifts, according to CNN.
Trains are in Europe are filling up, as flight options shrink (photo: Zurich main station)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - European flights remain chaotic Tuesday morning 21 December, and there are now fears that the repercussions will continue to affect flights through Christmas. Among Tuesday’s announcements from airports and airlines: no flights are departing or arriving at Geneva’s Cointrin (update: still closed at 11:00). BA says that only half its Heathrow flights are operating (Gatwick and City flights are running, however), Duesseldorf in Germany is iced in, Frankfurt is closed due to fresh snow, after first cancelling 300 flights on the heels of cancellations for nearly 600 Monday. Brussels is accepting flights, but none are leaving, reports TSR, due to a shortage of de-icing liquid for the planes.
Trains are proving a difficult option as well, with a one-kilometre line forming at St Pancreas station in London for the Eurostar train, Swiss television TSR reports.
Background and contacts for airlines in Geneva / GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Le Monde (Fre) TSR (Fre), The Local, Germany
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Air traffic throughout Europe remains disrupted Monday morning 20 December, and while many flights are arriving in Geneva and Zurich, several others have been cancelled, notably from London, Paris and German cities. Both airports are requesting that passengers and people meeting arrivals check with airlines to see if their flights are on schedule before going to the airport: Geneva, Zurich.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of regular flights to Russia is being increased by both Swiss and Aeroflot for the winter ski season, Geneva’s Cointrin Airport says. Aeroflot has added an additional evening flight every day to Moscow-Sheremetyevo airport, while Swiss is adding four flights a week between Geneva and Moscow-Domodedevo.
Emirates will begin daily flights between Dubai and Geneva in June 2011, according to the airport.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Zurich to London Swiss flight LX-332 Sunday 31 October was spooked by a Halloween surprise, hitting a bird as it took off. The plane’s crew decided to return its 194 passengers to the airport, reports Air Crash Observer, and they were placed on other flights. Switzerland’s two main airports in Geneva and Zurich each have 30-50 bird strikes a year. The airport safety programmes have created bird strike committees and the incidents are closely monitored.
Switzerland is on a main north-south migratory path for birds and in recent years the airports have stepped up their fauna protection programmes for air safety reasons, but also to safeguard native and transitory wildlife.
Background, GenevaLunch: “Travelers flock to Geneva; so do birds”, 20 October 2009
Zurich Airport recently lost its battle with Germany to allow flights from Switzerland over southern German airspace, near the airport: noise pollution was a key issue
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The noise from aircraft appears to increase the risk of heart attacks, a major longitudinal study by the University of Bern shows. The study is part of the Swiss National Cohort longitudinal (over several years) reports on the Swiss population.
It is published in the current issue of the journal Epidemiology. The research looked at 4.6 million Swiss over age 30, from 2000 to 2005, and shows that with an exposure to 60 decibels as compared to 45 decibels on a regular basis over a 15-year period, the risk of a heart attack is 30 percent higher.
“Mortality increased with increasing level and duration of aircraft noise,” writes lead author Anke Huss. “Aircraft noise was associated with mortality from myocardial infarction, with a dose-response relationship for level and duration of exposure. The association does not appear to be explained by exposure to particulate matter air pollution, education, or socioeconomic status of the municipality.”
The study is significant in showing the health hazards of living in a flight path, but also for showing that noise alone is a risk factor. Previous studies of road and airport noise pollution have not shown as clearly the impact of noise without other types of pollution included.
The Swiss National Cohort has been funded since 2006 by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Its recent work, according to a report published in the International Journal of Public Health in June 2010, includes these findings: “Men aged 30 with university degrees can expect to live 7.1 years longer than men with compulsory schooling only (Spoerri et al. 2006). Another study found an increased risk of Alzheimer disease in people who had lived within 50 m of a 220–380 kV power line for at least 15 years (Huss et al. 2009). Mortality from coronary heart disease was found to decline by 22% for each 1,000 m increase in the altitude of the place of residence (Faeh et al. 2009).
Links to other sites: Swiss National Cohort, Reuters Health, International Journal of Public Health
The Queen’s speech to Parliament Tuesday 25 May laid out the agenda of the new coalition government, with the accent put on reducing the budget. A new Office for Budget Responsibility is part of the plan. The new government’s agenda also includes higher capital gains tax, limiting the number of non-European Union immigrants and making UK airports more competitive.
Links to other sites, with highlights of the speech: BBC, Reuters, UK, Telegraph
BA wins injunction against cabin crew strike
Update 2 19:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled early Monday, but the two airports later re-opened, as did several others in the UK and Ireland. The airspace situation throughout the British Isles has been changeable since Sunday thanks to the latest volcanic ash cloud, which has now moved towards the continent. Swiss authorities said Monday afternoon that although the cloud will reach Switzerland by Tuesday it is not dense enough to force them to close Swiss airspace.
Pilots are still obliged to visually check for ash particles and airlines must continue nightly checks for ash damage, as part of Switzerland’s standby measures.
BA cabin crew in the UK said they would be striking between 18 May and 9 June but late Monday evening a British court ruled in favour of BA and issued an injunction to stop the strike, saying the unions had not sent out letters by mail to everyone.
Background, GenevaLunch
Milan airports re-open, Munich closes
Ash cloud moves north of Switzerland
Source: UK Met office, Sunday 9 May
Update 5 – 9 May, 22:13 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Airports in Europe were opening and closing like doors Sunday, as the latest volcanic ash emission from Iceland wreaked havoc Sunday. Spanish and Portuguese airspace was mostly open by Sunday evening and airports that closed briefly in Italy re-opened as the cloud moved north.
Switzerland was spared and airports remained open but by late Sunday Munich had closed as the cloud moved north to Germany. A MeteoSwiss spokesperson told AP that rain Sunday night would “wash out the cloud by Monday morning.”
Nevertheless, the Swiss Civil Aviation Office has ordered pilots to visually check for any signs of ash after each flight, and all airlines must have specialists thoroughly check aircraft at the end of each day for any signs of volcanic ash residue, as a precautionary measure. The Office notes that depending on volcanic activity in the next few days, it’s possible that airspace will need to be closed again.
Flights from Switzerland to Nice in southern France, Spain and Portugal were canceled for part of the weekend. By mid-morning Sunday Easyjet had canceled or delayed all its Geneva flights, including those between Geneva and London. The Cannes Film Festival, which opens Wednesday 12 May, but it now appears unlikely it will be affected, although national weather services remain on alert for changes.
The BBC reports that hundreds of transatlantic flights to Europe were canceled or delayed.
Update 16:05 Airports in northern England appear to be spared for the time being, but the situation is changing hourly, reports the BBC, which says UK weather and ash watch authorities expect the cloud to move north during the evening. The airspace over Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland was progressively closed Wednesday 5 May due to a new risk from Icelandic volcanic ash, with airports to the north closing at 07:00 this morning and the closings occurring further south later in the day, reports the Irish Times. Shannon, which is a main base for transatlantic flights, will be one of the last to close, at 17:30.
©2010 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Swiss plane in the air
Update 13:40 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Planes are flying over Switzerland again, but the airline Swiss, like many others, is unable to get all its scheduled flights back on track immediately. The main problem is that several airports remain at least partially closed, a spokesperson told GenevaLunch: in Germany, and until late morning, France, while Sweden was gradually opening Wednesday morning. Long-haul flights to both Paris and London are now being allowed to land.
Eighty of the 400 flights normally scheduled by Swiss for 21 April remained canceled, the spokesperson said at 13:40. Long-haul traffic is for the most part back to normal.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Airports in the UK were reopened at 22:00 (9pm) Tuesday 20 April. Long-haul flights are landing at Heathrow in London, which will begin to significantly ease pressure on other airports, as planes are allowed to return to or pass through one of Europe’s busiest hubs. Heathrow was nevertheless warning travelers not to head for the airport without first checking with their airlines, since flights will be reinstated gradually.
Geneva airport 19 April, an emptiness that will soon be a thing of the past (photo, © 2010 Peter Brodbeck)
Britain warns new ash cloud heading towards Europe
Update 09:35 Geneva / Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - You can all go home (or to work) now: Swiss air space opens again at 08:00 Tuesday morning, as does most of Europe’s air space. Swiss civil aviation officials agreed to lift the ban after test flights carried out by the airline Swiss and the Swiss air force, as well as measurements of the ash cloud showed it is now safe to fly. The cloud remains over Switzerland but its density has been considerably reduced.
Geneva and Zurich airports are gradually reopening, but as of 08:00 Tuesday only flights to New York and Vienna were scheduled to leave from Geneva. The airports are asking passengers to check their departures and arrivals boards online and to check with their airlines directly about flights. Ed. note: their web sites were already difficult to access early Tuesday and web traffic is likely to climb during the day, so plan to be patient.
The Swiss Federal Transport Office will continue to carry out tests and airlines are obliged to send reports on all flights to allow the office to compile a good data base for safety reasons.
The UK is warning travelers that a new ash cloud is en route to Europe.
Photo album: Peter Brodbeck’s photos of Geneva airport 19 April
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
A rarity: Saturday morning air traffic usually crisscrosses the skies above the Swiss Alps. Not a single streak in the sky 17 April!
Check for the latest updates on GenevaLunch
USEFUL LINKS FOR SWISS AND FRENCH TRAVELERS: Geneva Airport, Zurich Airport, Swiss airline, CFF Swiss trains, SNCF French trains, MeteoSwiss, Eurocontrol, and World Radio Geneva updates
Update 23:00, 17 April Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss civil aviation authorities announced Saturday late afternoon that Swiss air space will remain closed until at least 14:00 (2pm) Sunday, and the time is likely to be extended. The airline Swiss is canceling all flights on Saturday and Sunday. Travelers should not go to the airport.
Health impact: The WHO (World Health Organization) in Geneva says that as long as there are no concentrations of ash in the lower atmosphere the fine particles pose no significant health problems. Nevertheless, “people with chronic respiratory conditions like asthma, emphysema or bronchitis may be more susceptible to irritation if ash is in the lower atmosphere in high concentrations,” according to the WHO web site.
“‘Since the ash concentration may vary from country to country depending on the wind and air temperatures, our advice is to listen to local public health officials for the best guidance for individual situations,’ says Dr Maria Neira, head of public and environmental health. ‘If people are outside and notice irritation in their throat and lungs, a runny nose or itchy eyes, they should return indoors and limit their outdoor activities.’”
MeteoSwiss has not published any alerts and recommends that people who are interested follow the UK Met office’s map of the cloud, updated every few hours. Its web page, in French, carries images of the cloud early Saturday, and its team notes that the cloud moved lower during the night, to 3,600 metres above Payerne.
All three airports in Paris will remain closed until Monday morning. The SNCF says Saturday evening that rail traffic, affected by a strike, is nearly back to normal except in the southeast of the country.
Taking off - not today, though
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has joined the countries to the north of it in closing its airspace as of Friday afternoon 16 April, due to the ash cloud that has moved in from Iceland. The Swiss Federal Aviation Office and SkyGuide have agreed to close Swiss airspace, with the cloud expected to reach Switzerland around midnight Friday. The space will remain closed until 09:00 Saturday, with the two agencies monitoring the situation during the night, but at the moment they do not expect to prolong the closure.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A total of nearly 100 flights have been canceled at each of Switzerland’s two main airports, Geneva and Zurich, due to the ash cloud from Iceland that is affecting European airspace. To check flights: Geneva, Zurich.
Update 19:04 Ireland’s air traffic controllers are taking industrial action Wednesday 20 January, which will result in about 100 flights being cancelled in and out of Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports. Their union is backing 14controllers who were fired suspended Tuesday for refusing to cooperate with their employer, the Irish Aviation Authority, over using new technology, according to the Irish Times.
Paris airports cancelled about 15 percent of their flights 13-15 January, reports the Canadian Press news agency, when French air traffic controllers went on strike over pay and the possibility their civil servant status will change.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The US began tightening security checks on international flights into the country Monday 4 January, including using more body scans, but the number of voices objecting to the scannerss is growing. Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, Sunday promised to gradually introduce more of the scanners, but privacy and civil liberties groups say using the machines may break child pornography laws, reports the Guardian. A US congressman, Jason Chaffetz, argues that a bill is needed to protect privacy in the US. The bill has passed the House in Congress and is now under consideration by the US Senate.
The new measures are being taken in the wake of the 25 December suicide bomber attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan in the US.
The world had 2.2 billion air passengers in the 12 months to September 2009, 820 million of which were international travelers, and 140 million of these were international travelers on US routes.
Washington, DC had its largest ever single snowfall in a December day and New York City was shoveling out from under a foot of fresh snow on Sunday. A slow-moving northeaster dumped large quantities of the white stuff on about a quarter of the US population, according to the BBC. Emergencies were declared in several states and air traffic is badly snarled in many areas.
Links to other sites: ABC News, BBC, Boston Globe
Val d'anniviers, Valais, Switzerland (look for the cat's shadow)
Saint Prex, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Saturday 1 August is Switzerland’s national holiday, a time when the Swiss like to return to their families’ hometowns, and with fine weather forecast, expect trains, planes and roads to be busy starting Friday, as people take long weekends off work.
Tips for the Swiss holiday, road alerts, last-minute travel plans
Zurich, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Zurich Airport has reported a 6.6% increase in passenger traffic in 2008, with 22.1 million passengers moving through Kloten. Geneva’s Cointrin Airport also had a strong 2008, GenevaLunch reported 6 January, with 11.8 million passengers. Zurich serves as a transit airport for many passengers traveling in and out of Geneva.
