SWISS International Air Lines has slashed well over a thousand flights from its schedules between now and October 2025, in a move estimated to affect tens of thousands of passengers and generate a scramble for seats, just as a suite of other carriers too are implementing mass cancellations.
The Swiss firm, part of Lufthansa Group, is writing off 1.5% of its scheduled departures over the next five months, with 12% of the cancellations affecting the UK to Switzerland routes out of London, Manchester and Edinburgh. The result is likely to be a rush on short-haul flights with other carriers such as British Airways and easyJet. Meanwhile, SWISS operations to Shanghai and Chicago are among the long-haul routes impacted.
Shortage of pilots
SWISS has blamed the situation on “a shortage of pilots to ensure that all scheduled flights can be operated” and expressed “regret that we are unable to offer these connections as planned and will inform the customers affected as soon as possible.” The airline’s priority “is to rebook passengers onto the next best alternative SWISS flight. If this is not possible, we will switch to other airlines in the Lufthansa Group,” it says.
Aviation 24 has reported on pilot shortages affecting A320, A321, A330, and A340 aircraft. The situation is part of a wider crisis in the European aviation sector, where, as Travel and Tour World reports: “Aer Lingus, TAP Portugal, Air France, Swiss, Finnair, Ryanair, Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, EasyJet, Iberia, ITA Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Wizz Air, Vueling, Eurowings—and many other major European airlines—are grappling with a wave of massive cancellations and flight delays. The skies above Europe have turned turbulent in 2025.”
The flight chaos is being seen in the whopping 37% of TAP Portugal flights landing more than 15 minutes late in 2025 so far, the 77,000 delayed Ryanair flights and 26,600 easyJet delays. Between them, British Airways, KLM, and Lufthansa have cancelled over 6,000 flights this year.
Weather and technical issues
As well as pilot shortages, weather events such as Storm Éowyn over the UK and Ireland in January and heavy snow in Germany have impacted schedules. And that’s not to mention the technical and logistical nightmares such as a March fire at London’s Heathrow that closed Europe’s busiest airport for around 16 hours, cancelling about 1,300 flights and affecting nearly 300,000 passengers. Or the April power outage over the Iberian Peninsula.
Incredibly, given all that, Travel and Tour World notes that overall flight cancellations have actually dropped 32% year-on-year. Unfortunately, delays are up 54%. Many will question whether this is the right time for a 5 June 2025 vote on proposed changes to EU air passenger rights that could see airlines benefit from higher thresholds on delays before they have to pay out compensation – amounts of which could also shrink by 40% if the proposals go through.
