Nearly every second flight departing Zurich airport has been delayed since the beginning of June, with further delays anticipated over summer.

An average 46% of flights were delayed from Zurich between 1 June and 10 July, according to AWP news agency, with passengers facing an average 40-minute waiting time.

Polish airline LOT experienced the most delays, with 78% of flights, followed by Air Canada, SunExpress, Scandinavian, Aer Lingus and Air Serbia with delays of more than 60%.

Before the pandemic in 2019, around 40% of departures were delayed in June, around 6% less than current rates, and over the year as a whole, delays stood at under 29%, Swiss Info reports.

Furthermore, an increasing number of flights are being cancelled, with Swiss and other European airlines cancelling hundreds of flights over the summer season, primarily due to staff shortages.

Since the beginning of last month, 632 out of 25,030 arrivals and departures were cancelled in Zurich.

In the middle of June, Swiss air traffic control came to a standstill for several hours due to a network failure. Another breakdown took place a fortnight later, as a flight handling system error led to further delays. 

“The Swiss air navigation service provider Skyguide experienced a technical malfunction in the early hours of this morning, which is why Swiss airspace has been closed to traffic for safety reasons,” the company wrote in a statement at the time.

A spokesperson for the company added: “Unfortunately, it’s pretty much impossible to make predictions about delays because we’re internationally dependent.” Yet it can be reasonably assumed that the rate of delays will be comparatively higher this summer, reports suggest