Helvetic Airways

Updated: October 2026 – You board a SWISS flight, the boarding pass says LX – and outside waits an Embraer that does not exist in the SWISS fleet. Welcome to Helvetic Airways. The Zurich airline is one of the most interesting in the German-speaking world for spotters: an all-Embraer fleet, two jet generations side by side and a business model where the flight number often tells a different story than the aircraft. This page shows you how to reliably identify Helvetic.

Helvetic Airways at a glance

Helvetic Airways is a Swiss airline based at Zurich Airport. It operates a second base in Bern-Belp. Its core business is unusual: Helvetic mainly leases aircraft with crew to other airlines. It also flies charters for tour operators, companies and sports clubs as well as a few routes of its own, mainly to vacation destinations.

The story begins in fall 2003. Helvetic emerged at the time as an expansion of the small Odette Airways and started with a single Fokker 100 to three destinations – as Switzerland’s first low-cost airline. By 2004, seven aircraft were in service. The low-cost approach did not last long, though: in March 2006, the financier Martin Ebner and his wife Rosmarie took over all the shares through Patinex AG, and Helvetic reoriented itself. The new livery followed in December 2006, and in 2007 the cooperation with SWISS began, which shapes the business to this day.

Since then, Helvetic has developed into an Embraer specialist. By its own account, about 600 people work for the company, from cockpit and cabin to the in-house maintenance operation that Helvetic founded in 2011.

Codes and callsign: 2L, OAW and “HELVETIC”

• IATA code 2L: appears in the flight number when Helvetic flies under its own name – for example on vacation routes from Zurich or Bern.
• ICAO code OAW: the code for air traffic control and flight plans.
• Callsign HELVETIC: how the crew identifies itself on the radio on its own flights.

The special thing: a large share of Helvetic flights carry no 2L flight number at all but SWISS’s LX number. On the departure board, you then see only SWISS – only a look at the aircraft or at the detailed data in the tracker shows who is really flying. Why flight number and callsign are two different things is explained in the guide Callsign and flight number; the logic behind the abbreviations is covered in IATA and ICAO codes explained.

Wet lease: Helvetic flies for others

Helvetic calls its main business ACMI – that stands for Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance. The airline thus provides the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance, while the customer sells the tickets and plans the routes. In everyday terms, this is simply wet lease; how the model works is explained in the piece Wet lease explained.

SWISS: the most important customer

SWISS has been by far the most important customer since 2007. In October 2024, the two airlines extended their partnership by five years. The contract covers up to 15 Embraer jets for SWISS’s European network – E190-E2s and E195-E2s as well as the earlier models. According to the announcement at the time, it is up to nine aircraft in winter and up to 15 in summer. SWISS justifies this with two advantages: peaks in the schedule can be absorbed, and routes that are too small for its own Airbus jets become economical with the smaller Embraers.

For you as a spotter, that means: when an Embraer lands on a SWISS route, it is not a mistake in the schedule but Helvetic on behalf of SWISS. There are no Embraers in the SWISS fleet itself – the smallest own jets are Airbus A220s.

Lufthansa and Condor

Other airlines have also booked Helvetic. From March 2016, Helvetic flew on wet lease for Lufthansa between Zurich and Munich; Lufthansa now serves the route with its own aircraft again. In summer 2026, a new customer was added: Condor leased two Helvetic E190s with crew for the season and used them from Frankfurt Airport on European routes. Whether these assignments continue will be decided with the next schedules – check before your trip.

The fleet: Embraer only

According to Helvetic’s fleet overview, the fleet consists of 20 Embraer jets in four variants. All are configured in a single class.

Type	Seats	Generation	Spotter note
Embraer E190	112	E1	Winglets, slim engines; also flew for Condor in summer 2026
Embraer E195	122	E1	Stretched version of the E190, in the fleet since summer 2024
Embraer E190-E2	110	E2	No winglets, large geared turbofan engines
Embraer E195-E2	134	E2	Largest Helvetic jet, fleet still growing

How the 20 aircraft are split across the types is not stated by Helvetic itself. Fleet overviews listed four each of the E190, E195 and E195-E2 and eight E190-E2s in early 2026; some E2s were temporarily out of service. Take this split as a guideline, not as the current day’s inventory.

The E2 generation

Helvetic is one of the early operators of the second E-Jet generation in Europe. At the end of October 2019, the airline took delivery of its first E190-E2, registered HB-AZA, and on November 1, 2019, it entered scheduled service for the first time – on a SWISS flight from Zurich to Bremen. Originally, Helvetic had ordered twelve E190-E2s; according to fleet overviews, four larger E195-E2s now belong to the fleet alongside eight E190-E2s.

In November 2025, Helvetic added to the order at the Dubai Airshow and firmly ordered three more E195-E2s, plus purchase rights for five additional examples. The new jets get 134 seats in one class, with delivery planned between the end of 2026 and spring 2027. They gradually replace older E190s. For you, that means: if you don’t yet have the first-generation E190 in Helvetic colors in your logbook, you’d better not wait too long.

One aircraft has a special history: the E190-E2 HB-AZE was the 1,600th E-Jet delivered by Embraer in July 2020 and carried a “1600” marking under the cockpit at handover. On the ferry flight from Natal to Zurich, it also set a distance record for the E-Jet family. How to find one-offs and special liveries specifically is explained in the guide on special liveries.

What flew before

Before Embraer came, Helvetic was a Fokker airline. The Fokker 100 shaped the first years and also flew for SWISS from 2010. The first E190s joined the fleet from 2014, and the last Fokker 100 left the fleet in June 2019. At times, the fleet also included an Airbus A319 and – from Odette days – an MD-83.

E1 or E2? How to tell the generations apart

Because Helvetic flies both generations in the same design, the livery doesn’t help you here. The technology does.

That leaves the question of length: the E190 and E190-E2 are practically the same length, while the E195 variants are noticeably stretched. With one look at the wingtip and one at the fuselage length, you have classified every Helvetic jet in two steps. You will find more details in the type profiles for the E190-E2 and the E195-E2.

How to recognize Helvetic

Since December 2006, Helvetic has flown in a livery of red, white and silver-gray with a Swiss cross on the tail. From a distance, the cross occasionally causes mix-ups with SWISS – but the type question solves the problem immediately: SWISS itself flies no Embraers. An E-Jet with a Swiss cross on the tail in Zurich is therefore almost always Helvetic.

The registration helps too. All Helvetic aircraft are registered in Switzerland and carry the prefix HB-. Many E2 jets carry registrations in the HB-AZ… series, such as HB-AZA, HB-AZB or HB-AZE. The prefix alone isn’t enough, though: SWISS, Edelweiss and other Swiss operators also fly with HB registrations. How to read registrations reliably is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

Spotting Helvetic: Zurich, Bern and Germany

Zurich is the place where you see Helvetic most reliably. The fleet is based here, and the jets fly in the SWISS waves at the hub. From observation deck B you watch the Embraers taxiing and at the stands and can compare E1 and E2 at your leisure. For takeoffs and landings up close, Butzenbüel is a well-known address. Which runway is in use depends on the wind – how to assess that is covered in the guide on the runway direction in use at the airport.

Bern-Belp is the second base. There you see Helvetic mainly on vacation and charter flights, which depend heavily on the season.

In Germany, you meet Helvetic mainly on SWISS connections to Zurich. Which airports those currently are, and whether an Embraer or a SWISS Airbus is scheduled there, often changes at short notice. In summer 2026, Frankfurt was added as a special case, where the two E190s for Condor were based – a public location there is the Zeppelinheim viewing platform.

For clean photos, it is worth looking at the light: the guide on the sun position at the photo spot shows when the sun comes from the right side.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Helvetic for a SWISS subsidiary – Helvetic belongs to the Ebner family, not Lufthansa Group. It flies for SWISS only on contract.
• Logging an LX Embraer as a SWISS jet – SWISS has no Embraers of its own. The operator is Helvetic.
• Confusing the E190 and E190-E2 – same livery, same length. Winglets and engines decide.
• Treating HB- as proof of Helvetic – the prefix only shows Swiss registration.
• Taking every E-Jet for Helvetic – KLM Cityhopper or Luxair also fly E-Jets, but with different registrations and colors.
• Taking the Condor flight for a Condor jet – in summer 2026, Helvetic E190s flew under Condor flight numbers.

Conclusion

Helvetic Airways is the airline you often see without noticing. Behind many SWISS flights in Europe are Embraer jets from Zurich, and in summer 2026 even Condor flights out of Frankfurt. If you check the type, note the registration and record Helvetic as the operator, you have a clean collection – and with the E190, E195, E190-E2 and E195-E2, four variants that are each worth it.