Zurich Airport and Swiss: record summer with improved punctuality
The 2025 summer vacation season was one of the busiest travel periods in history for Zurich Airport and Swiss. Despite record passenger volumes, both partners were able to significantly improve on-time performance. New digital tools and operational measures contributed to more stable operations.
Summer 2025 was another busy period for Swiss and Zurich Airport. Over 3.2 million passengers used Zurich Airport in July - an increase of 4.8% compared to the previous year. Swiss carried 1.8 million passengers in July - between the end of June and mid-August, the figure was just over 3 million, 2.4% more than in 2024.
New high at the end of July
During this period, the airline operated almost 22,500 flights, around 500 more than last summer. The busiest day was July 28. On that Monday, both companies reached new highs: A total of 115,547 passengers traveled through Zurich Airport - of which 63,460 people flew with Swiss, more than at any time since the pandemic.
At Swiss, London, Palma de Mallorca and Munich were the most popular short-haul destinations. On long-haul routes, New York, Chicago and Boston led the top three. From Zurich Airport, Palma de Mallorca, Istanbul, Lisbon, Rome, Vancouver and Tokyo were particularly popular. The transfer share was 26.9 percent - most passengers therefore started or ended their journey in Switzerland.
Digital tools for more punctuality
Swiss and Zurich Airport have implemented various measures to cope with the demanding summer travel volume. One key tool is the Airport Operations Plan (AOP), which has been in use for a year. It provides over 4,800 active users with mobile real-time information - from gate changes to weather conditions. The Target Time Management System (TTMS) for optimizing arrival times in the event of bottlenecks was also recently tested.
The airport has provided more bag tag machines and Swiss has introduced the position of turnaround manager. This coordinates the processes between landing and take-off again. An additional meteorologist provides more precise weather forecasts for flight operations.
Significant improvement in punctuality
The measures took effect: Swiss was able to increase the punctuality of its flights worldwide to 58.6% - an increase of 9.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. The number of flights canceled at short notice was almost halved. The punctuality rate for all flight movements at Zurich Airport was 51% in July, an increase of 9 percentage points. Delays after 11 p.m. decreased significantly.
"The results show that the investments are having an impact and bringing more stability," summarizes Stefan Tschudin, Chief Operation Officer of Flughafen Zürich AG. Oliver Buchhofer, COO Swiss, adds: "We are satisfied with the improved punctuality, but we don't want to rest on our laurels. Around 70 percent of delays are caused by external factors such as bottlenecks in air traffic control or weather."
The processes at the airport were efficient: 90 percent of passengers passed through security in under five minutes. The new baggage sorting system processed over 2.3 million items of baggage with a very low loss rate of 0.18%.
