Seattle will be getting service from yet another international airline as of next summer, representing continued impressive growth for the airport…
Edelweiss Air adds Seattle flights in June 2025
Edelweiss Air has announced plans to launch a new 2x weekly flight between Zurich (ZRH) and Seattle (SEA). The flight will operate seasonally as of June 2, 2025, and is expected to run through late October 2025. It will operate on Mondays and Saturdays, with the following schedule:
WK6 Zurich to Seattle departing 1:00PM arriving 2:50PM
WK7 Seattle to Zurich departing 4:25PM arriving 11:45AM (+1 day)
The 5,260-mile flight is blocked at 10hr50min westbound and 10hr20min eastbound. Edelweiss will use an Airbus A340-300 for the service, featuring 314 seats, including 27 business class seats, 76 premium economy seats, and 211 economy class seats. While not of any real significance, I can’t help but point out the interesting layout of the Edelweiss A340s, as premium economy is located in front of business class.
For those not familiar with Edelweiss, the airline is part of Lufthansa Group, and it’s SWISS’ leisure subsidiary, operating both short and long haul flights. Edelweiss’ long haul fleet currently consists of Airbus A340s, though as of 2025, the airline will gradually retire those planes, and replace them with Airbus A350s. By 2027, all A340s should be retired.
My take on Edelweiss Air adding Seattle flights
It’s cool to see Edelweiss Air launching a new route to the United States. Currently Edelweiss’ only year-round US destination is Tampa (TPA), but the airline also offers seasonal service to Denver (DEN) and Las Vegas (LAS).
At first I was confused by Edelweiss launching flights to Seattle, since you’d think this could also be a mainline SWISS destination, given that both Seattle and Zurich are pretty big business hubs. However, with 2x weekly summer seasonal flights, it’s clear that this is targeting leisure travelers.
I imagine Edelweiss will have no issues filling these planes, between Europeans looking to explore the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and Americans looking to vacation in Switzerland and beyond (Edelweiss also has routes to other summer destinations in Europe, like Greece).
I can’t help but wonder if we might eventually see SWISS add flights to Seattle. Currently Lufthansa flies to Seattle out of both Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC), and Condor also flies to Seattle out of Frankfurt. You’d think there would be demand for SWISS to add flights in the market. Then again, SWISS’ issue is that the airline doesn’t exactly have many spare planes, so it’s hard for the airline to grow.
Bottom line
As of June 2025, Lufthansa Group leisure carrier Edelweiss Air will add a new 2x weekly flight between Zurich and Seattle using an Airbus A340. This will be one of only four destinations in the United States served by Edelweiss.
While you wouldn’t necessarily assume that this would be a leisure market, the summer seasonal flights make clear what the intent is. I have to imagine that Seattle is near the top of the list of potential long haul destinations that SWISS could expand to in the future…
What do you make of Edelweiss adding Seattle flights? Do you think SWISS could eventually operate in the market?