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Swiss cancels many European flights

Swiss International Air Lines has cancelled flights to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Poland until at least 2pm on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the airline said the airports at Lyon in France, as well as Paris’ Charles de Gaulle were not yet operational.

Jean-Claude Donzel said the situation remained a major challenge for Swiss since the open and closed status of some of Europe’s airspace was changing regularly.

Donzel said the first Swiss flight to Britain since airspace was closed last Thursday due to the volcano eruption in Iceland would leave Zurich shortly before midday.

He added that long-haul flights should normalise by around midday.

Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that the crisis caused by the volcanic eruption has so far cost airlines more than $1.7 billion (SFr1.81 billion) in lost revenue.

“At the worst, the crisis impacted 29 per cent of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

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