Switzerland’s air navigation service provider, Skyguide, temporarily closed national airspace in the early hours of 17 November 2025 due to a system malfunction, halting departures from Zurich and Geneva and forcing several over-flights to divert into French and German sectors. The shutdown lasted two and a half hours, with normal operations resuming by 08:30 CET after engineers rebooted the primary flight-data processor.
Impact assessment: • Roughly 47 departures were delayed and seven inbound European flights accepted holding patterns or reroutes, according to Eurocontrol data. • No long-haul diversions occurred, but SWISS cancelled three early-morning feeder flights, disrupting onward connections for business travellers. • Cargo operators reported minimal spoilage thanks to contingency cold-storage at Zurich.
![Swiss Airspace Closure Lifted After Early-Morning Technical Failure at Skyguide]()
Corporate response: Mobility managers invoked ‘Plan B’ rerouting via Milan and Munich for critical personnel. The incident underscores the need for backup rail or road options for intra-European moves, especially as Swiss airports push capacity limits ahead of the holiday peak.
Regulatory implications: Skyguide will submit a root-cause report to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation within 72 hours, as required under EU/EASA occurrence-reporting rules that Switzerland applies through the Bilateral Aviation Agreement. Early indications point to a faulty software update rather than a cyberattack.
Take-away for employers: Update travel-risk playbooks to ensure contact trees and alternative routing are current. Encourage employees to enrol in airline apps and Skyguide’s SMS alert service for real-time updates.
Impact assessment: • Roughly 47 departures were delayed and seven inbound European flights accepted holding patterns or reroutes, according to Eurocontrol data. • No long-haul diversions occurred, but SWISS cancelled three early-morning feeder flights, disrupting onward connections for business travellers. • Cargo operators reported minimal spoilage thanks to contingency cold-storage at Zurich.
Corporate response: Mobility managers invoked ‘Plan B’ rerouting via Milan and Munich for critical personnel. The incident underscores the need for backup rail or road options for intra-European moves, especially as Swiss airports push capacity limits ahead of the holiday peak.
Regulatory implications: Skyguide will submit a root-cause report to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation within 72 hours, as required under EU/EASA occurrence-reporting rules that Switzerland applies through the Bilateral Aviation Agreement. Early indications point to a faulty software update rather than a cyberattack.
Take-away for employers: Update travel-risk playbooks to ensure contact trees and alternative routing are current. Encourage employees to enrol in airline apps and Skyguide’s SMS alert service for real-time updates.
