Swiss International Air Lines has begun installing its new Premium Economy Class on its Airbus A340-300 fleet.
The first such aircraft completed – HB-JMB – departed for Johannesburg on January 24 on its first flight with the new seating class installed. All four of SWISS’s Airbus A340s will be equipped with Premium Economy by April, from when the new seating class will be bookable for the further destinations served.
From the same date, Premium Economy Class will also be newly bookable for SWISS services on the Zurich-Johannesburg, Zurich-Hong Kong and Zurich-Chicago routes.
SWISS has already installed Premium Economy Class throughout its Boeing 777-300ER fleet, whose first aircraft was completed at the end of February 2022. SWISS was the first airline in the Lufthansa Group to introduce the best-in-class Premium Economy seat, which sets new comfort benchmarks with its pitch of almost a metre and its 48-centimetre width.
In other news, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is to conclude its current 20th anniversary celebrations with a very special action: twenty of its advanced Airbus A220-100 and A220-300 aircraft are to be named after Swiss tourist areas and resorts, to help publicize far and wide the sheer variety of Switzerland’s tourist landscape. To this end, SWISS and Switzerland Tourism co-ran a competition last December inviting Swiss tourist destinations to submit their own imaginative presentations on why they should be selected. Over 50 entries were received, which were each assessed by a SWISS judging panel on their creativity, their originality, their authenticity and their connection to SWISS.
“We received so many outstanding and original entries, and it was far from easy to select our 20 winners,” says Anja Beeler, SWISS’s Head of Strategic Communications & Content Creation. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our participants for all their creative contributions. And we’re really looking forward to carrying the names of all the varied and unique winning Swiss tourist areas and resorts on our aircraft out into the world.”
The SWISS social media community also selected three favourites from among the 20 winners in a worldwide online poll: Bad Zurzach (AG), Nendaz (VS) and Viamala (GR). Each of these will enjoy its own physical aircraft naming ceremony within a SWISS hangar – two in Zurich and one in Geneva – in the course of 2023.
The winning destinations:
Canton Aargau: Bad Zurzach, Rheinfelden
Canton Bern: Haslital
Canton Fribourg: La Gruyère
Canton Glarus: Braunwald
Canton Grisons: Lenzerheide, Val Surses, Viamala
Canton Lucerne: Sempach, Willisau
Canton Schwyz: Brunnen, Morschach
Canton Solothurn: Solothurn
Canton St. Gallen: Rapperswil-Jona
Canton Ticino: Mendrisio, Verzasca
Canton Uri: Andermatt, Rütli
Canton Valais: Nendaz, Saas-Fee.
Top Copyright Photo: Swiss International Air Lines Airbus A340-313 HB-JMB (msn 545) ZRH (Rolf Wallner). Image: 955847.
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