Sixteen Swiss International Air Lines flights to the east coast of the United States were cancelled at the weekend as a result of Hurricane Irene.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
A Swiss spokeswoman said two flights to and from Zurich and one to and from Geneva were cancelled on Saturday, and five round-trips were grounded on Sunday. An additional ten flights from US airlines were cancelled to Zurich.
On Sunday Irene weakened to a tropical storm but the huge weather system remained dangerous as it raced across a shuttered New York City, leaving behind a stunned US east coast where at least 14 people died, severe flooding was widespread and four million homes and businesses lost power.
Further north in New England, residents were bracing for flooding and winds that could topple many towering trees that sat in soil already saturated by earlier heavy rain. The storm was expected to move over eastern Canada by Sunday night.
Irene’s winds weakened to 104 kph after its long journey up the East Coast, where it dropped 30 centimetres of rain on North Carolina and Virginia. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm after its winds fell below 119 kph, the threshold for a hurricane.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss raises bar with fleet and jobs expansion
This content was published on
The additions to the fleet from 2012 will create 2,000 new jobs in Switzerland, around a third of them directly at Swiss. The airline that was forced to shrink shortly after its creation in 2002 is now growing again. The new aircraft will eventually boost the fleet to 90. The airline industry as a whole…
This content was published on
The airline’s founder, Moritz Suter, and its head at the time, André Dosé, are to face charges of negligent homicide and bodily injury caused by negligence at a trial opening on May 5. Both defendants have always maintained their innocence. A Crossair plane with 33 people on board flying from Berlin to Zurich crashed into…
This content was published on
The move comes after Switzerland and Canada signed a memorandum of understanding on the transfer of passenger information on Friday. According to a Swiss Federal Civil Aviation Office statement, the agreement covers 25 types of information, including a person’s name, nationality, passport number and travel ticket data. Left out are “sensitive” details such as religious…
This content was published on
Swissair was the former national airline of Switzerland, created in 1931. For nearly 71 years, it was known as the “Flying Bank” due to the financial stability of the airline. But a failed expansion strategy and the economic turndown led to the grounding of the airline in October 2001. It was kept alive until March…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.