A Zurich-bound A220 diverted to Geneva last night. Should the pilots be commended for their optimism, or were they just unrealistic?
London to Zurich flight diverts to Geneva due to curfew
This incident happened on Monday, June 10, 2024, and involves SWISS flight LX339, scheduled to operate from London (LHR) to Zurich (ZRH). The flight was operated by a two-year-old Airbus A220-300 with the registration code YL-ABJ. This was actually an airBaltic jet operating on behalf of SWISS, as SWISS wet leases some of these planes (airBaltic has significant wet lease operations, given the impact that Russian airspace closure is having on the airline).
This 470-mile flight was blocked at 1hr40min, and was scheduled to depart at 8:05PM and arrive at 10:45PM (there’s an hour time change). Unfortunately the inbound aircraft from Zurich was running a bit over an hour late, so the aircraft only ended up taking off from Heathrow Airport at 9:22PM.
You might not think much of this, except for one important detail — Zurich Airport has a strict curfew of 11:30PM. 11PM is actually the latest scheduled arrival time, and then flights can land between 11PM and 11:30PM only if they’re delayed. So this SWISS flight goes up against that limit under normal circumstances, and is only scheduled to land 15 minutes prior to the latest scheduled landing time, and 45 minutes before the latest possible landing time.
The flight departed London, and made its way to Zurich for over 40 minutes. At 11:05PM Zurich time, the jet began its descent from 31,000 feet, in a race against the clock, given that it had to land within 25 minutes. It’s clear that the pilots were hauling you-know-what. They made good time, and were over the city of Basel (under 50 miles from Zurich) before 11:20PM.
However, at that point it became clear that based on the approach pattern and runway being used, they’d miss the curfew by a few minutes. As a result, the plane made a turn to the southwest and diverted to Geneva Airport (GVA), where the crew and passengers had to spend the night.
This morning, the same aircraft ended up operating the short 143-mile flight from Geneva to Zurich as flight number LX5039. It departed at 9:49AM and landed at 10:20AM, just under 12 hours after the scheduled arrival time.
Under EU261 rules, passengers are at least entitled to having their expenses covered, plus cash compensation. That being said, we’re talking about SWISS, so odds are that the airline will blame the incident on Boeing 737 rudders, or something.
Were the pilots just overly optimistic, or…?
I can’t help but be curious about what went on in the background here:
- When the plane got ready to push back from Heathrow, did the pilots maybe optimistically hope that they’d make the curfew?
- Because these were airBaltic pilots, were they maybe less familiar with how strict the Zurich curfew is, than a SWISS pilot might have been?
- Did SWISS and/or the pilots decide that it was still better to have the plane overnight at a SWISS hub, rather than at Heathrow?
I would speculate that the pilots probably thought that they’d be able to beat the Zurich curfew, and were just optimistic. I can also see the circumstances that could have caused this:
- The jet started its pushback at Heathrow at 9:01PM, and then it took 21 minutes until the plane took off, which is a bit longer than usual; for example, the flights on the two prior days took 16 and 19 minutes from pushback to takeoff
- While the flight time for this route varies, over the past couple of weeks it has ranged from 1hr9min to 1hr30min, and on average it takes somewhere around 1hr15min
So if the plane managed to take off within 16 minutes and then had a flight time of 1hr9min, it would’ve landed in Zurich with minutes to spare. I imagine that once the jet pushed back, the pilots were committed to giving it a shot. Unfortunately it didn’t work out quite as planned, though…
Bottom line
What was supposed to be a quick SWISS flight from London to Zurich last night ended up being an overnight journey due to the curfew at Zurich Airport. The jet departed behind schedule due to a late inbound aircraft. Once airborne, it became clear the plane wouldn’t make it to Zurich before 11:30PM, at which point the aircraft diverted to Geneva. Passengers ended up arriving in Zurich around 12 hours behind schedule.
What do you make of this SWISS curfew diversion?
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