SWISS will soon be dealing with the peak summer travel season. And the company has taken a range of actions to prepare for its demands. This year’s challenges are again substantial: European airspace restrictions, the limitations that the weather can impose at Zurich Airport and the present geopolitical situation will all put sizeable pressures on operations this summer, too. But SWISS and its people have been working intensively over the past few months, optimizing workflows and making targeted investments – such as in its ‘turnaround managers’, an entirely new team of ground personnel. The company has also further enhanced its digital self-services and its communications in the event of irregularities, all with the declared aim of delivering a better performance this summer than last year in punctuality, operational stability and customer satisfaction terms.
For Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), the summer travel season is one of the most important times of the year. But it’s the most challenging time, too. Over the next few weeks, the airline expects on average to operate some 430 flights and transport over 57 000 passengers a day.
In view of this, SWISS has been working intensively since last summer on targeted preparations for the coming peak season. “We started really early to take a long and thorough look at all our workflows and procedures and make concrete improvements to these,” explains Chief Operating Officer Oliver Buchhofer. “We know that the summer season demands a lot from us; and we know, too, that the parameters this year will be just as challenging as they were last year. But we’re ready to meet and master them.”
Declared aim: better punctuality than in 2024
The global air transport sector continues to grow – currently by five to seven per cent a year. This is bringing more and more air traffic to the skies, especially over Europe. And Switzerland lies at the heart of the continent. At the same time, airspace capacities are currently significantly reduced as Europe’s air navigation services providers are stretched to the limit by both personnel shortages and the effects of industrial action.
Airlines’ summer flight operations can be further disrupted by weather conditions such as thunderstorms and adverse winds. These can be an almost everyday occurrence at this time of year, and SWISS is feeling them already.
Despite these challenges, SWISS’s year-to-date on-time performance presently stands at 72 per cent – an improvement on the 68 per cent it recorded for the first half of 2024 and two percentage points above the 70-per-cent target that it has set itself for this year.
“We’re very pleased with our 2025 on-time performance to date,” COO Buchhofer confirms. “But it will be hard to maintain our punctuality at this level over the summer months with their high flight and traveler volumes. The entire air transport system is subject to major seasonal fluctuations; and we as an airline have no direct influence over many of the main factors involved. Our ambitious aim is to deliver a better performance in all the relevant key metrics – punctuality, stability, baggage and customer satisfaction – than we did last year.”
Two-thirds of all the delays which are experienced by SWISS in its flight operations are beyond the airline’s control. And while the share of own-cause delays has been encouragingly reduced to around one-third, SWISS aims to further lower this figure to under a quarter for the year as a whole.
Cushions are key
This summer, too, SWISS will be putting its faith in tried-and-trusted ‘cushions’ to make and keep its operations more stable and reliable. These include holding aircraft in reserve for deployment if necessary along with additional crews who can be assigned to services at short notice. Minimum passenger transfer times also remain extended, to ensure that travelers can make their connections with ease and to better accommodate delays.
“All these cushions give us greater flexibility when things get tight – with a weather-related delay, for instance, or an airspace restriction,” Oliver Buchhofer explains. “But even our reserves can sometimes get exhausted – especially when we have to draw on them for several days in a row. Then we just have to cope with the situation to the best of our abilities.”
Turnaround management: when every minute counts
A further vital element in the numerous actions that SWISS has taken for the coming summer season is the new team of ‘turnaround managers’ who were formed this spring. The turnaround manager coordinates the time-critical airport ground handling phase between an aircraft’s arrival and departure, working with SWISS’s partners to ensure that its unloading, cleaning, fueling and loading are all performed as smoothly as possible.
Such coordination can save (or make up) valuable time, especially during the busiest midday and late-evening Zurich operating ‘waves’. “We’ve recruited a ten-strong team to perform this new function,” says Oliver Buchhofer. “And we’ll be investing a single-digit million-franc amount in it every year – because we know that on the ground, too, every minute counts.”
Investments in digital customer services
The summer months aren’t just the busiest in travel terms: they’re among the most challenging, too, for the air transport sector. And when travelers’ expectations are particularly high, quality and reliability are even more essential – even when things don’t quite proceed as planned. With these considerations in mind, SWISS has further refined the communications via its app in the event of schedule changes, and has also further expanded its popular self-service facilities.
“With delays or flight changes in particular, our customers expect prompt solutions,” explains Chief Commercial Officer Heike Birlenbach. “And to deliver these we rely on our self-service facilities, which can provide swift and simple help. Our customers can study the options presented and choose the new flight alternative that best meets their needs. Not only does this give our customers greater autonomy and address their individual situation: it also helps ease the pressures on our service centers at what is likely to be a particularly busy time. Needless to say, though, our teams of customer service specialists remain available by phone 24/7 all over the world as and where required.”
“Our customers count on us,” CCO Birlenbach continues, “especially during their summer holidays, which are often one of the highlights of their year. That’s why we continue to make targeted investments throughout our product and service offer – like our new Economy Class food and beverage program for our long-haul flights, further refining our inflight service product and further expanding our digital services all the way to personalized communications in the event of flight or schedule changes. Our aim in all of these endeavors is to provide an air travel experience that is as smooth and enjoyable as possible, in the summer season, too. And our paramount objective is to give our guests the best possible feeling as they start their summer vacation.”
