Court: SWISS fulfilled obligations to check passenger documents

SWISS has fulfilled its obligations to sort passengers, says court. Keystone-SDA

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) cannot be held culpable for its handling of the sorting of passengers bound for Zurich.

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The Federal Administrative Court has revoked the fines imposed by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) on the Swiss airline for transporting passengers between 2016 and 2018 who did not have the necessary documents to enter the Schengen area.

In 2017 and 2019, the SEM imposed fines of CHF196,000 ($238,000) and CHF168,000 respectively on SWISS. The airline was sanctioned after almost 150 people arrived in Zurich without valid documents. The passengers came from the Brazilian airport of São Paulo and the US airports of Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco.

These decisions were overturned in 2020 and 2021 by the Federal Administrative Court, which referred the case back to the SEM for clarification. After merging the proceedings, the SEM imposed fines of CHF200,000 and CHF168,000 on SWISS in 2023 for breaching its duty of care in checking boarding entry permits. The costs of the case, amounting to CHF60,000, were also charged to the airline.

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SWISS fulfils its obligations

In a ruling published on Friday, the Federal Administrative Court again upheld SWISS’s appeal and annulled the SEM’s decision. In essence, the judges found that there had been no breach of the duty of care.

The judges found that SWISS, when it was responsible, had ensured that the personnel in charge of document control were properly trained. In the United States, where this task is entrusted to airport personnel, the company could assume that the technical equipment of modern airports allowed for reliable organisation of check-in and boarding.

These considerations showed that SWISS cannot be accused of any fundamental shortcomings, the court concluded. The airline was able to refute any breach of its duty of care during the period in question and at the airports concerned.

The decision is not final and can still be appealed before the Federal Court.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/ts

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