While not as affected as the rest of Europe, Swiss airports will see a number of routes cut in the coming months, according to the AeroRoutes online portal. Despite this decline, on the whole, people in Switzerland will see the number of flights leaving the country increase, especially to holiday destinations during the summer. Here's what we know so far.

European airlines to cut services due to staff shortages

In the study, reported by Watson, AeroRoutes found that a number of airlines that fly to Zurich and Basel will be reducing their offering between March 26 and October 28, 2023 - no data was provided for Geneva. The newspaper explained that most of the routes will be reduced because of a shortage of workers at international airlines and airports abroad.

It follows a tumultuous summer for European airlines in 2022, which saw large disruption at major hubs like Schiphol in Amsterdam and London Heathrow. While Switzerland only saw the aftershocks of the crisis, like delayed bag deliveries in Zurich, airlines have preemptively cut their services to the alpine nation so the same problem doesn’t occur in the summer of 2023.

German airlines to cut services to Zurich and Basel

From March 26 to October 28, 2023, German airline Eurowings has confirmed that it will be cutting services from Zurich to Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne. Lufthansa will be reducing services from Zurich to Frankfurt, while Aegean has also confirmed that it will be cutting the number of flights from the Swiss city to Heraklion, Crete.

In Basel, Lufthansa will be cutting its services to Frankfurt, while easyJet Switzerland will be cancelling its Basel to Belgrade route entirely. Corendon Airlines will also no longer run its services to Izmir, Bodrum, Corfu, Fuerteventura, Kos, Heraklion, Gran Canaria, Rhodes and Tenerife routes, following the closure of its hub in the city. 

According to Watson, further cuts could follow as the summer goes on.

SWISS to avoid cancelling flights in 2023

It’s not all doom and gloom though: SWISS is expected to largely avoid cancelling and reducing flights, with CEO Dieter Vranckx telling reporters that they had “designed our planning for 2023 more carefully to ensure that no flight cancellations are necessary." The flag-carrier airline confirmed that they were hoping to offer 80 to 85 percent of the flights the company provided in 2019.

In addition to the announcement of new destinations for summer 2023, the international company will be reopening its route to Shanghai on March 3 and expanding the number of services to Hong Kong and Florence. 

More flights from Zurich and Basel to top summer destinations expected in 2023

It’s not just Swiss companies boosting their offerings from Zurich, with Korean Air increasing flights to Seoul and Ethiopian Airlines expanding its route to Addis Ababa. During the summer only, people in the city will benefit from more flights to Antalya (Southwind Airlines), Naples (easyJet) and Porto (TAP Air Portugal).

From Basel, travellers will have more options when booking flights to Palma de Mallorca (Eurowings), Larnaca (easyJet), Antalya (Southwind), Algiers and Constantine (both Tassili Airlines) during the summer. Despite the cutting of routes abroad, it is safe to assume that families and individuals in Switzerland will still have a bevvy of options when planning their next holiday!

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