Laws not observed Swiss refuses flight and sends customers on an hours-long telephone odyssey
A man wants to visit his family in Ethiopia. Swiss won't take him because he doesn't have a visa. He could have had it issued on arrival at the airport. Swiss believes it is in the right, but the Ethiopian embassy disagrees.
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- A man wants to fly to Ethiopia with Swiss. He needs a visa for this. According to the entry regulations of the destination country, he can obtain this on arrival in Addis Ababa.
- However, Swiss does not take him on board because he does not have a visa.
- He is then allowed to fly on a second attempt - even without a visa. Swiss explained that it was an oversight and that the man should not have been taken on the flight.
- The Ethiopian embassy and the Federal Office of Civil Aviation disagree. The man should have been allowed to enter the country without a visa.
A flight with Swiss from Zurich via Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, outward and return, cost a refugee from Eritrea and his mentor a lot of time, money and nerves. The man has residence status B, which means he is allowed to travel abroad - and wanted to visit his family in Ethiopia, reports SRF.
To do so, he needed a visa, which he applied for but did not receive in time. Assuming that he could have the document issued on arrival at Addis Ababa airport - as stated in Ethiopia's travel information - the man traveled to Zurich airport.
However, Swiss refuses the flight and has the man rebooked for a later departure date for 200 francs. The visa is still missing for the new flight date. But this time Swiss lets him fly with them. It remains unclear why.
Because of the shortened stay with his family, the man now wants to rebook the return flight for a later date. This is obviously difficult from Ethiopia. The man therefore turns to his mentor in Switzerland.
Three hours on hold - for a simple rebooking
And she gets caught up in a veritable telephone marathon, writes SRF. She spent almost three hours on hold, being put through to several employees until the simple rebooking was finally successful.
The mentor is annoyed and demands an explanation from Swiss via the contact form. However, she receives no concrete answers. Only when "Espresso" asked why the Eritrean refugee was once denied boarding under the same conditions - the missing visa - and once was allowed to fly without any problems, did Swiss say that they could not explain it. The man should not have been allowed on board on the second attempt either.
The Ethiopian embassy takes a different view. In a letter to "Espresso", it made it clear that it was no problem to have an appropriate visa issued in Addis Ababa. Which had worked on the man's second flight attempt. Swiss should also have taken the man on the first flight.
The Federal Office of Civil Aviation confirms this: "Airlines are generally obliged to comply with the entry regulations of the destination country."
Swiss apologized for the inconvenience, covered the rebooking costs for the outward flight and reimbursed the mentor's telephone costs.