SWISS removes advance financial contribution requirement to ease the path to a cockpit career

SWISS is to provide its future pilots with even more support in financing their training. From June 2025 onwards, would-be SWISS pilots will no longer be required to make their own advance financial contribution to their training costs. The move eliminates a major hurdle that has doubtless denied many talented young people their dream of a cockpit career. In future, the entire student’s contribution to their pilot training costs will be in the form of a loan, which they will repay in instalments during their subsequent employment.

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will have an annual need of some 110 new pilots in the years ahead. To date, in addition to a subsidy from the Swiss Confederation and a loan from the company, every future SWISS pilot has had to make a sizeable advance financial contribution of their own to the costs of their pilot training. This one-off contribution is now to be abolished: from June 2025 onwards, SWISS will meet these training costs, too, in the form of a loan.

Equal opportunities for all

In making this further investment in its pilot training, SWISS is committing even more strongly to procuring its future cockpit crew members from within its own ranks. In future, young individuals with the natural skillset required will be able to embark on their pilot training regardless of their financial situation. The new arrangement removes a hurdle that has doubtless deterred some talented young people in the past from pursuing their dream of a SWISS cockpit career.

The loan granted by SWISS to cover their pilot training costs will be repaid by the student after they have completed their training and been accepted into the SWISS cockpit crew corps. The loan will be repaid in instalments and at a minimal interest rate, all in compliance with the corresponding guidelines of the Swiss federal tax authorities.

“In making this investment in our pilot training, we’re removing a major financial hurdle and opening up the path to the cockpit to even more talented young individuals,” says SWISS Chief Operating Officer Oliver Buchhofer. “Anyone with the right natural skills should be able to become a SWISS pilot, regardless of their financial background. And in taking this step, we are both ensuring that we can meet our own long-term cockpit crewing needs and making the dream of a pilot career a good deal more achievable.”

Further information on pilot training at SWISS and the financing thereof will be found on the SWISS careers portal.