Swiss (LX, Zurich) is cancelling 1,400 flights during the 2025 summer season, 1.5% of its total scheduled departures, due to a shortage of pilots and lack of aircraft. A spokesperson told ch-aviation that the company is cutting flights on short- and medium-haul routes as well as in its long-haul network, mainly to Shanghai Pudong and Chicago O'Hare, until October.

Swiss said the issues had multiple causes, including a new collective labour agreement, which reduced pilots' working hours, and an accumulation of sick and parental leave.

Moreover, Swiss has initiated training for the upcoming A350-900s, making more pilots unavailable for regular flights, aviation news portal aeroTELEGRAPH reported. Swiss is urging older pilots to postpone retirement and has asked part-time staff to work more hours to mitigate the crew issues. The airline is also implementing a voluntary vacation buyback scheme.

The company plans to increase its pilot training capabilities. COO Oliver Buchhofer said the airline was hiring 80 new pilots annually but wants to increase this number to 110.

Meanwhile, the airline is facing problems with its fleet, especially its A220s. Issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines are continuing to plague the fleet. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, two A220-100s and five A220-300s are currently inactive, although it is not clear how many are grounded due to engine problems.

Swiss has tried obtaining more crews on secondment from parent Lufthansa, but the German carrier needs the crews for its own operations. It also considered the possibility of sourcing additional capacity through wet-leases but decided against it. Buchhofer said that Swiss needs to evaluate its planning in order to avoid similar situations in the future.

According to the ch-aviation database, Swiss operates 93 aircraft: nine A220-100s, twenty-one A220-300s, eleven A320-200s, eleven A320-200Ns, three A321-100s, three A321-200s, five A321-200NX, fourteen A330-300s, four A340-300s, and twelve B777-300ERs. In addition to its in-house fleet, Swiss also wet leases in six A220-300s from airBaltic, and six E190s, four E195s, five E190-E2s, and four E195-E2s from Helvetic Airways.