SWISS invests in “Next-Generation Airline of Switzerland”

From the start of the 2015 summer schedules, SWISS will be supplementing its traditional hub concept with a new point-to-point system and expanding its Zurich-based European network through the addition of 19 new destinations.

Fifteen of the new points – Naples, Bari, Bilbao, Toulouse, Leipzig, Dresden, Graz, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Riga, Krakow, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Sofia and Zagreb – will be provided with year-round service, while four of them – Brindisi, Malta, Izmir and Santiago de Compostela – will be served in the summer months.

Alongside this, SWISS, the Lufthansa Group subsidiary will also be expanding its range of services from and to Geneva, with the addition of 16 weekly Geneva-Lugano flights.

The Switzerland-based airline will also be upgrading its Airbus A320 family fleet, including increasing seat capacity on its A320s and A321s by adopting a new type of seat offering more legroom.

Lufthansa introduced a slim short-haul seat in December 2010, enabling the German carrier to increase capacity and lower costs on its European network. The Recaro-made seat was rolled out across the narrow-body fleets of Lufthansa and another group subsidiary, Austrian Airlines, in 2011. Swiss' single-aisle Airbus aircraft were not included in the cabin revamp at the time. The Zurich-based airline says now that its new seat is based on Lufthansa's short-haul seat but includes a number of further developments.

This will increase capacity on the A320’s by 12 seats and the A321’s by 19 seats. The new cabin interiors will be modified to the style already seen in the SWISS Lounges and on the long-haul fleet.

SWISS are also planning to adopt a new food service to fit with the upgrading of its aircraft, for the Economy class. The new approach will attempt to source food fresh, daily and locally from Swiss producers.

There are currently 90 aircraft in the airlines fleet but the airline has also created plans to increase its fleet size. On the short- and medium-haul front the airline will be taking delivery of 30 new Bombardier CS100s from next year onwards to replace the present Avro RJ100 fleet.

The Airbus fleet will be further expanded with the arrival of a new Airbus A321ceo in 2016. And between 2019 and 2022 SWISS will add ten state-of-the-art new Airbus A320neos and five Airbus A321neos to its fleet to replace ten of its older A320s and five A321s. On the long-haul front, six Boeing 777-300ERs will join the SWISS fleet from 2016 onwards.