Why A SWISS Boeing 777 Is Flying To Tampa This July

I remember Pan Am had 747 to Tampa.

Probably some China routes they used to fly at higher frequency are still not back up to that level?

You can access Edelweiss awards via UA, right now there is I availability on 7Jul (other days may exist just the first I found) on TPA-ZRH

@ Brad B -- Great catch, thank you! I'll update the post to reflect that.

I'm surprised Swiss don't use a A343 to serve Edelweiss, which would be more similar to the WK's A343 (as WK's A343's are ex-LX's) and just put that B777 in a service where you have more Premium demand.

And YUL gets the WK 343...

Reason for the swap is a late A340 delivery for edelweiss.

ZRH-TPA is a VERY premium market.

First Class will be Crew Rest on this Flight.
Same for ZRH-YVRx which will be operated by LX A330.

Cheers

I also remember flying Air Canada's L-1011 fom Tampa to Toronto.

This is cool. I fondly remember the DL TriStars in and out of TPA and I flew on the last DL L10 flt out of TPA.
Will definitely brave rush hour on the Howard Frankland to check this out !

Martinair also flew 747-200 on occasional in the late 90s. Typically, it was 767-300 or MD-11 to Amsterdam every Wednesday and Sunday.

BA flew the 747 to TPA back in the 80’s

No idea why you don't think Tampa to Zurich is not a premium market. It can very well fill those premium seats and needs the capacity.

Air Canada landed a 747 in Tampa seasonally in the early 90s

I would be shocked if neither BA or Virgin hadn't operated 747's to Tampa in the last 20 yeras. The bucket and spade business to Florida is particularly strong from the UK

National and Northwest Orient both had 747s in TPA.

I wish Swiss would be permanent move. Edelweiss business class is terrible

That wouldn't be an Edelweiss award, it would be a Swiss award, no? I was under the impression Edelweiss never releases award space, at least to partners. I believe Lucky even made a blog post on it some years back.

The Concorde used to fly to Miami and Tampa

Huh? So the cheaper lower end airline has no premium economy but more business seats and Swiss has premium economy and fewer business seats?
That means some people will be pushed own to premium economy. I would not want to be one of those.

Edelweiss A340s feature 314 seats in a two cabin configuration, with 27 business class seats and 287 economy seats
Swiss 777s feature 320 seats in a four cabin configuration, including eight first class seats, 62 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 226 economy seats

Northwest Orient used to fly a 747 MSP-ORD-TPA back around 1979-1980. More commonly they flew DC-10-40's nonstop between MSP & TPA in the 80's.

Also remember WardAir Canada bringing 747's into TPA in the 80's.

Northwest Orient also flew a 747 to Tampa seasonally in the 1980’s. (And possibly even the 1970’s)

Beware: The LX8xxx flights, regardless by which aircraft they are operated, only earn in the LH, UA, NH and AC programs, since they are not StarAlliance!

I used to fly there in a 747 with BA in the 80's

Wow, Martinair, haven't heard that word in a while. I flew with them DTWAMS on a charter back in the late 70s.

Edelweiss oftentimes uses Swiss aircraft on its routes. We often see Swiss A321 / A321neo replacing Edelweiss own A320s, and Swiss B77Ws, A333s, and A343s instead of the scheduled Edelweiss A343s on their flights to Larnaca.

You can see such changes in their timetable (where B77W is marked A77W, and Swiss A333/A343 are marked A3P)...

The Concorde made at least one visit as a promotion for BA, but there were never regular Concorde flights to TPA.

What? You are contradicting your semtence above immediately below when you are listing the aircrafts seat allocations.

Swiss has more First (+8), more Business (+35), more Prem Economy (+24) but less regular Economy (-61).

So noone will be pushed down.

No, as LX 343 simply has MUCH lower overall seating capacity as a WK 343.

WK has 314 seats, while Swiss has 223 seats. Impossible to use a LX343 to replace a WK343.

...besides that LX and WK Business class are actually (almost) the same?

Yes, 747s regularly visited Tampa before Disney.

I live about 20 minutes from TPA and try to catch the Edelweiss A340 whenever it flies over (saw it last night). I will definitely keep an eye out for the Swiss Triple. BA flies a Triple into here daily from Gatwixk.

Here’s the facts. I grew up in aviation at TPA.
National, Air Canada, Wardair Canada, Pan Am, Northwest, British Airways all flew regularly into TIA. On occasion TWA, United flew them in too. Atlas Air shows up once in a while still.
Another fact. Aside from the Concorde making a stop in Tampa , which was British Airways, Concorde flew 4 times a year from Tampa to London. Summer time. They were charter flights over and you would return on the QE2.
Yes, I too would like to see Swiss rather than Edelweiss. I’ll be on the roof top parking to see Swiss land.

Stephen again. Those airlines I mentioned previously were all 747’s. I flew all of them.
The last 747 I saw land at TPA was Airforce One. Antnov 124 flies in too from time to time.

I can remember in the days before airports had security, waiting a few hours for my Air Florida flight to Pensacola. There was a Pan Am 747 at a gate, not leaving anytime soon and no crew on board. I asked someone if I could check it out and was allowed to go down the jet bridge and board the plane for a few minutes. I'm guessing this was around 1981-1983.

flying on this flight on 6/30 and just got an offer email to upgrade to first class seat with business class service for 599 CHF. already in business so doesn't seem worth it