Zürich is the destination for almost all direct flights from the US to Switzerland: Swissair and Delta are the major carriers, both offering non-stop or direct flights from their gateway cities. These flights are supplemented by American Airlines’ nonstop flights from Chicago, and Continental Airlines and Pakistan International Airlines’ nonstop flights from New York. Swissair also has daily nonstop flights to Geneva and Basel, but these depart from New York only.

You may also find good occasional deals on routings via other major European cities with the airlines of those countries: Air France via Paris, British Airways via London, Finnair via Helsinki, or Alitalia via Rome or Milan, for example. (Milan’s Malpensa airport is just 25km south of the Swiss border.) Iberia often has particularly cheap special offers on flights from New York to Zürich, with a change of planes in Barcelona or Madrid.

At the time of writing, the major carriers were offering the following APEX round-trip fares direct to Zürich: Atlanta $600–700; Boston $450–550; Chicago $425–550; Cincinnati $500–570; Los Angeles $880–930; New York $400–475; San Francisco $880–930; and Washington DC $425–500. With special promotional offers, round-trip fares can drop as low as $300 from New York and $500 from LA. Note that Swissair’s published fares are generally US$50–75 higher than that of their competitors, but if you have some flexibility in your schedule you’d do well to wait for one of their many special offers, which can bring the price tag down by as much as US$150.

Another option worth investigating is Balair/CTA – a wholly owned subsidiary of Swissair – who offer Sunday charter flights from May through November, departing from Miami ($600), Orlando and Ft Myers ($800) and heading nonstop to Zürich.