On Friday May 29th 2026 Edelweiss Air became the 18th carrier to serve Glasgow Airport with the introduction of a twice weekly summer service from Zurich, and I was on the inaugural flight to try it out and support this new connection.
Edelweiss Air is Switzerland’s largest leisure carrier, and is a subsidiary of Swiss International Airlines, with a fleet of Airbus aircraft operating to holiday destinations across Europe and further afield.
This particular trip actually started in Prague, however, this review is only focusing on the sector between Zurich and Glasgow.
Experience on the Ground
Zurich Airport is easy enough to navigate, but is deceptively busy, with the airport recording 32.5 million passengers in 2025 it was very busy as I made my way to security just after 11am. Security was well organised and liquids and electronics could be left in cabin baggage.
The airport did not display gate information until 1 hour 50 minutes before departure, however the Swiss app provided the information well in advance, and passengers were free to clear passport control at their leisure.
I made my way to the gate where a sizable number of passengers were already waiting. The aircraft for this particular flight was an Airbus A320 with the registration number “HB-IJU” which arrived from Sevilla, Spain at 1240.
All passengers documentation was required to be checked before boarding began, with dedicated staff members and counters for this to happen, as the flight was not full this process was relatively pain free.
Shortly before boarding a large number of Edelweiss employees arrived at the gate for an official ribbon cutting ceremony with the flight crew, where a speech was also given (it was in German so couldn’t tell you what they were saying).
Boarding began 10 minutes later than planned, with staff handing out packets of sweets at the gate with ZRH branding.
Once onboard the aircraft I quickly took my seat (16F) and made myself at home for this short 2 hour flight home to Glasgow.
The two seats next to me remained free as the announcement “cabin crew boarding complete 84 with 0 infants was made”, that would give a load factor for this inaugural flight of 49.41%.
An Air Traffic Control restriction delayed departure from Glasgow, however we departed Zurich at 1415.
During the Flight
Edelweiss does not currently have Wi-Fi installed on its A320 fleet, nor does it have seatback screens, instead you can connect to the network and stream entertainment to your device (thankfully the insufferable plague on inflight entertainment, “Young Sheldon” was nowhere to be found so that is a pass from me!)
As I scrolled through the entertainment options the crew began the inflight service. One crew member offered cold sandwiches with a choice between “Turkey” or “Tomato and Mozarella”, seeing as I am lactose intolerant I went with the Turkey option.
As you can see the Turkey sandwich came covered in cheese, and it also appeared to have some sort of cream cheese inside as well (EDITORS NOTE; 7 hours after eating it the Holland and Barrett lactose tablets seem to have worked). Despite the presence of cheese the sandwich was actually very pleasant, and was served with my choice of hot and cold drink.
Just before we commenced our descent into Glasgow the crew handed out a card with a biscuit (also containing milk) asking us to rate our flight and be in with the chance of winning 2 Business Class tickets.
I then decided to take a look at the destination guides offered via the inflight entertainment portal, and it’s here that the shine starts to wear off.
Despite a 5 month lead time from announcing this new service, the inflight destination guides have not been updated to include one for Glasgow, as can be seen from the screenshot below.
This prompted me to check the inflight magazine for a route map, which had also not been updated to show Glasgow (or Kefalonia) as a destination on the Edelweiss network.
Some research while writing this article suggests that this magazine was published in January 2026, just before this route was announced.
While I understand that inflight magazines are not as popular as they used to be, it was disappointing to see that the inflight entertainment guides had not been updated to include Glasgow, while impossible to conclude if Glasgow featuring on the guides list would have converted interest to bookings, it is safe to conclude that not featuring it hasn’t helped promote this route to as wide an audience as possible.
I have included a video of the approach and landing into Glasgow below.
Glasgow Arrivals Experience
The flight arrived in Glasgow at 1513 and was met with a water cannon salute from the airport fire service, video below.
The aircraft arrived onto stand 28 at 1517, only for things to seemingly grind to a halt. It turns out there was some confusion between the crew and ground teams at the airport as to what door would be used for exiting the aircraft.
Cabin crew were expecting the front door to be used, but in the end the rear door was used allowing for a welcoming reception in the form of a bagpiper, and several members of the AGS team (I saw a lot of faces I recognise from LinkedIn and press releases).
Passport control was busy, but the queue kept moving and I was processed in a little over 5 minutes.
As a result of the slight delay, baggage was already available from carousel number 3 and I was ultimately out of the airport within 23 minutes of the aircraft parking on stand.
The Big Question…was Edelweiss Worth It?
Honestly, I would say so. The crew on this flight were one of the best I have had, and despite the small presence of cheese and milk in the food (which was still nice) I had a very enjoyable flight.
My flight was booked with 2 weeks’ notice and included free seat selection, a large cabin bag and a 23kg checked bag, with the total being £265, however, thanks to leftover vouchers from Christmas I bagged Prague to Glasgow via Zurich for just £90.
It is worth pointing out however, with the removal of Glasgow to Frankfurt flights from the end of May 2026 this means Edelweiss (and Eurowings when they start) will be the only Lufthansa Group airlines serving Glasgow, and although both add new destinations to the airports network, neither based on current schedules, are a suitable replacement for the Frankfurt service.
George Nugent Travels 