SWISS are set to cancel 1.400 flights in 2025, the company’s Chief Operating Officer has admitted. A mixture of both plane and pilot shortages has forced the flag carrier to cut back on services.
Speaking to the Tages-Anzeiger, SWISS COO Oliver Buchhofer confirmed that the company will be forced to cancel 1.400 of its flights to and from Swiss airports, beginning in April and ending in October 2025. Most of the routes affected are short-haul services between Zurich, Geneva and the rest of Europe, but some long-haul flights have been cancelled too, notably flights to Chicago and Shanghai.
SWISS promised to inform passengers affected at the nearest opportunity, noting that those with cancelled flights can rebook to another service free of charge on a day of their choosing. They added that the cancellations would allow them to maintain a reliable schedule on remaining flights.
While the company blamed the cancellations on the “challenging situation regarding the deployment planning of our pilots," Buchhofer revealed that the issues at SWISS are more complex. He explained that while they have enough staff, their pilots are trained to fly a plane that is in short supply.
"There are enough pilots on the A220, but there aren't enough aircraft," mainly due to engine trouble, the COO noted. "With the A320, it's the other way around: SWISS has enough aircraft, but too few cockpit crews."
Buchhofer explained that the pandemic forced SWISS to cut 20 percent of its workforce, which meant that when demand suddenly spiked following the end of COVID-19-related measures, it was left scrambling to employ and train new workers. He added that a rise in sick leave and maternity leave, and the new agreement on salaries in 2023, have further exacerbated the shortages and constrained how many staff the company can employ.
“Our plan [for 2025] was certainly on the optimistic side,” Buchhofer conceded. For now, SWISS are trying to rectify the issue by reassigning as many pilots as possible to flight duty. The shortages are expected to end at the end of the year, once more staff are trained up and engine issues are resolved.