In late 2022, SWISS formally announced that it would add Airbus A350s to its fleet. There’s now an interesting update — while the airline was initially only officially supposed to receive at least five of these jets, that has now doubled, to 10 jets. Let’s go over all the details of what we can expect.
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SWISS adding at least 10 Airbus A350s to fleet
SWISS’ long haul fleet currently consists of Boeing 777-300ERs, Airbus A330-300s, and Airbus A340-300s. SWISS belongs to Lufthansa Group, and the overall airline group places aircraft orders centrally, and then allocates planes accordingly.
Lufthansa Group has dozens of Airbus A350-900s and Boeing 787-9s on order, and these will be split between Lufthansa, SWISS, and Austrian. What we know for sure as of now is that SWISS will take delivery of 10 Airbus A350-900s — the first five should be delivered between the summer of 2025 and the end of 2027, while the other five should be delivered by the end of 2031. So that’s quite a slow delivery timeline, with an average of under two new jets per year.
The first batch of A350s will be used to replace the carrier’s fleet of four Airbus A340-300s. Meanwhile the remaining A350s will be used to replace SWISS’ oldest Airbus A333-300s. Both the Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs have a long term place in SWISS’ fleet, so for the A330s, it’ll only be a partial fleet replacement. The A350 is an incredible aircraft, with huge range, excellent economics, and great passenger comfort.
For context on the rest of the Lufthansa Group fleet, the plan is for Austrian to take delivery of Boeing 787s, and for Lufthansa to take delivery of both Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s. Keep in mind that a lot more A350s could be coming SWISS’ way in the future, beyond the current 10. Not all of the Lufthansa Group A350s have been allocated yet.
SWISS has a cool video that it published about the A350 joining its fleet, which is well done. There’s more to the video than meets the eyes, with lots of hidden clues. For example, the alarm goes off at 3:40AM, which I have to imagine is a reference to the A340.
Here’s what SWISS CEO Jens Fehlinger had to say about this order:
“Our new Airbus A350s will make our fleet even more modern. This is a major investment, and a vital one to ensure that we continue to meet our customers’ high expectations. With these advanced twinjets and their innovative cabins, we’re bringing our long-haul aircraft fleet up to a totally new level of modernity, sustainability and inflight comfort for our guests.”
A350s will feature new SWISS Senses cabins
The Lufthansa Group is in the process of overhauling its cabins. Lufthansa has its new Allegris cabins, which include a new first class and new business class. SWISS will also be introducing new cabin interiors as of 2025, which will be known as SWISS Senses.
This is essentially the same product that Lufthansa is introducing, except it will feature SWISS branding. So you can expect SWISS to introduce a new first class product, featuring a door at each seat, plus a double suite in the center.
This also includes a new business class product, featuring a staggered configuration that’s highly customized. Yes, this is the same product that Lufthansa announced all the way back in 2017.
This new product will be a great improvement over SWISS’ current inflight products. These new seats should also eventually be installed on other SWISS long haul aircraft, though only in 2025 and beyond.
SWISS A350s to have 242 seats in four cabins
When it comes to the layout, SWISS’ A350s are expected to feature 242 seats, including:
- Three first class seats (with the center seat being able to accommodate two people)
- 45 business class seats
- 38 premium economy seats
- 156 economy seats
SWISS highlights a couple of key points about this configuration. First of all, the premium economy cabin is considerably larger than on any other long haul aircraft in the SWISS fleet. Second of all, SWISS will be the only airline in the world to continue having first class on all long haul aircraft.
Now, there are a few things that sort of surprise me here, or at a minimum, that I find noteworthy:
- SWISS has long highlighted the amount of first class demand it has, and the airline has eight first class seats on all long haul aircraft; I’m a bit disappointed that SWISS didn’t choose to introduce two rows of first class, but is just installing one row, like on Lufthansa, as this represents a 50-62% reduction in first class capacity
- There are only two lavatories for 45 business class seats, which is a pretty awful passenger to lavatory ratio for a premium cabin
- It’s interesting how there are two rows of economy in front of the third set of doors, behind premium economy; it sure would be nice if airlines made premium economy a bit more exclusive by offering separate lavatories, rather than making people walk back to the regular economy cabin
- All-in-all, this is quite a premium layout with fairly few seats, as most airlines have closer to 300 seats on A350-900s
Bottom line
SWISS will be taking delivery of at least 10 Airbus A350s between the summer of 2025 and the end of 2031. These are part of the overall order that Lufthansa Group has placed for the planes, and the intent is that the first batch of A350s replace SWISS’ current A340s.
These planes will feature the new SWISS Senses cabins, including the carrier’s new first and business class. We also now know that the airline will have 242 seats on these planes, with only one row of first class, and quite a big business class and premium economy cabin.
What do you make of SWISS’ plans to fly Airbus A350s?
The A350 or A380 passenger experience in business or first, is in my opinion, more enjoyable (regardless of carrier) than other commercial aircraft types.
I appear suffer less jet lag or soar throats than with other aircraft, especially Boeing commercial or military transports.
Have you seen the prices LH charges for the new seats? Biz MUC-SFO-MUC 6500.- Euro. First 13k
And let me guess, no individual air vents because thats to much of a cost. $5000 for a 9 hour experience and you cant control the temperature. Sillyness I think.
Well, the Allegris seats do have a nozzle on the side that you can control. There is also a seat cooling / warming setting but I’m yet to figure out how it works or in fact, if it works at all.
On a different note, I was recently on an LH flight from SFO to MUC with Allegris and two of the seats weren’t functioning. They had sold a full cabin so I’m not sure what ended up happening to the poor souls who had those seats (but they definitely weren’t sitting in it).
Regarding the heated/cooled seats, I bet LH took a page out of BMW's playbook: when you hit one of those buttons, a prompt will appear on your IFE saying you need to pay the subscription fee to use the seat's features.
It‘s way more expensive! LH announced the pricing and surcharges for the various seats…
The first class middle seat? It's either one person or two traveling together? You said 3 first class seats with the middle combinable. Could the middle be separated into 2 private seats? Maybe obvious, but slightly confusing.
Nope. Not even an arm rest between the two "seats", onlly one IFE screen.
You can have the middle seat for 1 person for an extra 2900.- Euro / leg!
Interesting how they’re still going with 2-3-2 for premium economy… pretty much all others save for Lufthansa have an extra seat per row
Emirates have gone for 2-3-2 PE on their A350s too
Only 2 lavatories in business for >40 passengers?
Duly noted.
Dear Swiss, I buy J class for comfortable travel, and at the old age I do not plan to stand in queue in front of the WC.
I expect now Eskimo, who obviously has too much time on his hands, will write one of his genius comments on this matter. Freedom of screech or how is it called?
Imagine someone who has a medical device. Swiss requires pre-approval. Manufacturer, model number, & serial number. Special office in Switzerland granted approval & issued authorization paperwork. But, on the paperwork, office worker left "A" off the end of the model number. Agent & aircraft captain denied him boarding -- trip and fare were lost. Swiss? Never again.
PS - The person was traveling with a doctor and medical team. (The ONLY thing wrong with the paperwork was the missing "A.")
You might get pilots spying on passengers and recording it as part of a new cabin experience.
The 2 lavs per 45 C seats is indeed terrible. Imagine paying also for the C+ suite, at 600$/leg and getting the one in main cabin and not behind first. Fun times hearing contant movements to the toilet, premium indeed.
Yet another reason, along with the overengineered and inconsistent seating experience with Alegris, to avoid LHG in future.
Why would you make premium economy more exclusive? It is economy.
I fly across the Atlantic. Seven hours max overnight. I fly Premium Economy because I have noticed that for an extra $4000 round trip the Business Class passengers get about the same three or four hours sleep between meals and look just as crappy on arrival as the rest of us. Perhaps more elegantly dressed but on arrival elegantly rumpled. For a few hundred dollars extra I get a nice seat. I also want a...
I fly across the Atlantic. Seven hours max overnight. I fly Premium Economy because I have noticed that for an extra $4000 round trip the Business Class passengers get about the same three or four hours sleep between meals and look just as crappy on arrival as the rest of us. Perhaps more elegantly dressed but on arrival elegantly rumpled. For a few hundred dollars extra I get a nice seat. I also want a dedicated toilet. The airlines I give my money and points to understand this. Sorry Swiss but this cabin seems to have been poorly designed. I am aware this is a forum devoted partly towards those who fly in the front of the bus perhaps with points but I get a sense the points landscape is evolving and some might have to slum it with the Premium Economy crowd in the future.
LX needs a better product on the A330-300, which is dated. Imagine the first LX A350-900 routes will be JFK.
I guess we could speculate where Swiss would go with the additional 5 planes...
@Ben
German aviation media is reporting that 4 of the 10 A350s will be used to retire the 4 remaining A340s (1 already went to Edelweiss) and that the other 6 will be used to replace the 6 oldest A330s:
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/swiss-bekommt-ab-2027-fuenf-weitere-airbus-a350
Seems plausible. I would expect the 350 to be used on east coast flights to start and get the crews familiar with the new birds (also only one bird per route). They are also the routes least affected by the First class reduction. Shame that the 340 so much fuel, the cabins are much more recent than the 330.
no snide remarks people
No one's doing it on purpose, its all because of that idiot Tim Dunn
Not even about mile high club? A350 is a joy to fly. All experiences are better.