Last night, SWISS dropped a major hint for their fleet renewal – announcing they will be accepting the Airbus A350 aircraft into its fleet.
Well, it seems we have a lot more information – other than wait until 2025.
SWISS will introduce a total of five Airbus A350-900 aircraft into its operation from 2025 onwards. The new aircraft will replace SWISS’s four remaining four-engined Airbus A340-300s in the longer term.
The five aircraft concerned are part of a total order for twenty-five A350-900s which was placed by the Lufthansa Group in 2019 – thus we now know where the aircraft have been allocated from, as Lufthansa Group has been scrambling for wide-body aircraft recently.
According to the airline, the twinjet will be equipped with an innovative and state-of-the-art cabin interior in all seating classes. It also offers a particularly large cargo capacity which will further support SWISS’s Swiss WorldCargo business.
Whilst nothing has been confirmed for the seating, given that Lufthansa itself is rolling out its Allegris concept, it wouldn’t be too far of an assumption that it will be standardised across the group as the new fleet is rolled out.
In Quotes
SWISS Chief Executive Officer Dieter Vranckx said:
“We are very pleased to have achieved our turnaround after the coronavirus crisis and be back on a sound financial track,”
“As a result of this, we are now in a position to invest again in the future of our company, in our people and in the quality that we offer our travelling guests. With this planned substantial modernization of our long-haul aircraft fleet, we are setting a vital course to sustainably maintain our competitive edge over the longer term.”
“Our decision to acquire the Airbus A350-900 is a clear commitment to further enhancing the sustainability of our flight operations,”
“Our new long-haul twinjet will play a substantial part in achieving our ambitious climate goals. And in adding this latest-generation aircraft to our fleet, with all the additional inflight comfort it will provide for our guests, we are also further confirming our position as a premium air carrier.”
An interesting move to say the least
SWISS had been traditionally an all-Airbus operation, until it brought in the Boeing 777-300ER fleet to support its long-haul flights.
However, it seems that the airline is happy to take on new-generation Airbus aircraft, which should have some commonality with the existing A330 fleet, as well as taking what could be assumed to be “excess” aircraft that Lufthansa group has ordered.
Its an interesting move as the airline plots its future and how it operates -certainly for those who loved quad-engined jet aircraft, there will be some tears at bedtime as these are withdrawn – but the costs of operating them versus the cost of operating and maintaining a new aircraft will be very different.
It’ll be interesting to see how these aircraft are configured and which routes they take – bearing in mind they are taking delivery of five aircraft – adding an extra one to the fleet.
That could open up some interesting possibilities for the airline.
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