Helvetic Airways

Helvetic Airways is a Swiss regional airline based at Zurich Airport, flying an all-Embraer fleet of E190-E2 and E195-E2 jets on its own scheduled and charter routes and as a wet-lease partner to SWISS. At the end of 2025 it ordered three further E195-E2s with five options, the first due in late 2026 — a fleet plan that drives its recruitment.

Flying for Helvetic Airways

Helvetic runs an Airline Pilot Cadet Programme in cooperation with Horizon Swiss Flight Academy, and its distinguishing feature is the promise attached: trainees receive structured support through training and the certainty of employment on completion, rather than entry to a hold pool. Requirements are specific — aged between 20 and 40, a class 1 medical, Swiss or EU-25/EFTA citizenship with a B or C residence permit, and German language proficiency. Entry depends on passing the Horizon assessment, or holding an unrestricted SPHAIR recommendation as an airline pilot. The airline covers type rating costs for pilots recruited through its official selection process.

Because the training partner is in this directory too, the route is traceable end to end. The gating step is the Horizon assessment or the SPHAIR recommendation, both of which are aptitude judgements made before training begins — so on this pathway the cognitive testing is not a hurdle late in the process but the thing that opens it.