Swiss has cancelled 1.5% of its summer schedule due to dual shortages of pilots and aircraft. The carrier is cutting multiple short and medium routes, as well as long-haul routes from Zurich to Shanghai Pudong and Chicago O’Hare until the October fall schedule.
The Pilot Shortage
Swiss last fall reached a new labor contract with its pilots, That agreement reduces working hours for pilots, and enabled accumulating sick and parental leaves in addition to allotted vacation times.  Compounding the problem, training has started for the new A350-900s scheduled for delivery this year, making more pilots unavailable for flights.
To mitigate the problem, the carrier has implemented a voluntary vacation buy-back program, urged older pilots to postpone retirement and is asking part-time staff to work additional hours. The company is also planning to increase its pilot training capacity from 80 pilots annually to 110. But none of these can happen instantly, forcing the carrier to lower capacity for the summer schedule.
Aircraft Issues
The issues with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines that plagued the A320neo family of aircraft over the past three years have now begun to impact the A220, for which Swiss was an early customer. The airline currently has 7 A220 aircraft inactive (2 -100 and 5 -300) which are impacting its short and medium route capacity. The carrier operates 93 aircraft in its fleet, and has wet-leased 25 additional aircraft from Air Baltic (6 A220-300) and Helvetic (19 Embraer E and E2 jets).
Swiss long-haul fleet includes 12 B777-300ER, 14 A330-300s, and 4 A340-300s. Its narrow-body fleet includes 11 A320ceo, 11 A320neo, 3 A321-100, 3 A321-200, 5 321-200NX, 9 A220-100 and 21 A220-300.
The aircraft shortage resulting from the Pratt & Whitney GTF maintenance issues is likely to continue to impact the fleet over the next couple of years as engine reach the deadlines for maintenance actions.
The Bottom Line
In an era where airlines are rebuilding their capacity and increasing their fleets and route networks, Swiss has taken a step backwards. While it has wet-leased in additional capacity from Air Baltic and Helvetica, that additional lift cannot replace the compounding impacts of the pilot shortage and aircraft delivery shortfalls.
We expect Swiss to begin to take deliveries of the A350 later this year and restore full long-haul services in the fall. The short-and medium-haul routes flown by the A220 may be more problematic as the carrier’s fleet of 30 averages about 6 aircraft on the ground at any given time over the next two years. Â
The good news is that solutions to the GTF engine issues are both available and working, but takes a full engine teardown to be installed. While turnaround times for that maintenance are getting smaller as learning impacts have been implemented in MRO actions, it still takes a significant period of time to tear down and rebuild an engine to return it to service. Schedule pain at Swiss may extend to 2026 as a result.
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