Zurich Airport manages warning strike so far without flight cancellations

The situation is calm, Zurich Airport's media office reported late in the afternoon at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. So far there have been no cancellations and most flights have been taken over by other ground service providers. There have been some delays. Passengers would be informed of the status of their flight by their airlines.

The AAS ground handling staff went on strike because the company wants to cease operations in Zurich. The strike was announced for 2 p.m. until the end of operations. During this period, AAS would handle 2000 out of 55,000 departing passengers or 35 out of 750 flight movements, Zurich Airport announced. AAS accounts for around 7 percent of handling at Zurich Airport.

According to the airport, AAS provides ground handling services for the airlines Chair, Air Serbia, Eurowings, Pegasus, Lot, Air Cairo, Air Montenegro and GP Aviation.

Over 200 employees affected

As the VPOD aviation union announced on Friday, AAS initiated a consultation process more than two weeks ago. Operations at the Zurich site are to be discontinued. Over 200 employees could lose their jobs. According to the union, AAS has so far refused to negotiate a fair social plan with them.

AAS Zurich denied this in a statement on Friday. It is not correct that AAS is refusing to negotiate a social plan.

AAS Zurich is currently examining numerous proposals made by AAS employees as part of the consultation process in order to avert potential redundancies or keep them as low as possible. As soon as this process is complete, and in the event of redundancies, AAS will also examine the VPOD's proposal for a social plan. This has always been communicated to the union.