Swiss To Cancel 1,400 Flights Through October Amid Pilot Shortage

ZURICH—Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines (Swiss) says it has too few pilots to maintain planned flight operations and must cancel approximately 1,400 flights through the end of October.

Swiss is evaluating adding more wet-leased aircraft beyond those already under contract.

“There are several reasons for the challenging personnel situation that led to the measures taken,” a Swiss spokesperson explained. 

Swiss says it has expanded in recent years and is striving for further growth to maintain its competitiveness. However, this planned growth is challenging due to regulations and framework conditions in the current 2023 collective labor agreement.

“We responded promptly to the situation and, together with our social partner Aeropers [pilot union], agreed on measures to defuse the situation in the short term and resolve the structural challenges sustainably in the longer term,” she says. 

These measures essentially include a voluntary retirement model and an option for later retirement for some pilots, voluntary vacation buyback and the voluntary adjustment of part-time employment. “We continue to intensively search for solutions to further improve the situation,” the spokesperson said. 

Furthermore, recently Swiss has also experienced unforeseeable, extended absences of pilots. At the same time, there are numerous early retirements that occurred during the pandemic. The training of new pilots takes two years, and the number of training places is limited.

“Swiss is currently training as many pilots as its simulator and instructor capacities allow,” the company's representative stated. “Also the retraining for the A350, which we expect to arrive in the summer, is also tying up cockpit resources.”

The airline is currently operating some routes on a reduced basis or temporarily suspending them. “With this measure, we want to ensure the most stable and reliable flight operations possible for our passengers,” the spokesperson said. 

On long-haul routes, Swiss has reduced flights to Shanghai and Chicago, the spokesperson explained. Instead of the planned daily service, Swiss will temporarily serve Shanghai three times a week until June 29. The carrier currently serves Chicago with two daily flights. The morning flight to Chicago will temporarily operate three times a week until June 30. From the beginning of September to October 25, Chicago will be served only once daily. 

On short- and medium-haul routes, it affects connections from Geneva Airport to various destinations between the beginning of May and the end of October. “From Zurich, we have to cancel a few flights to various destinations in Europe in August and September,” Swiss' spokesperson said.

During summer 2025, Swiss will wet-lease 15 Embraer Jets from Helvetic Airways and six Airbus A220-300s from airBaltic. 

The spokesperson said Swiss looked into wet leasing more aircraft, "but the options have already been exhausted. Our goal is also to reduce the number of wet-lease flights in the long term and to be able to operate these flights ourselves again. This also requires additional pilot capacity.” 

Looking ahead to 2026, the number of aircraft deployed will depend on the flight schedules, the pilot situation, and the availability of engines on the A220 fleet.