15th SWISS Airbus A340 takes off

SWISS adds its 15th Airbus A340 to its long-haul fleet this month. The aircraft, which bears the registration HB-JMN, took off for Johannesburg for its inaugural flight. The entry-into-service of this latest A340 concludes the expansion of the SWISS Airbus fleet that was embarked upon in November 2006.

As originally envisaged, the new Airbus A340 will replace one of SWISS’s current Airbus A330 aircraft. The new long-hauler offers 228 seats in a three-class cabin configuration, and will be deployed on a range of intercontinental routes.

The entry-into-service of this 15th Airbus A340 concludes the fleet expansion which SWISS initiated back in November 2006 and which has seen six Airbus A340s, two A330s, five A320s and two A321s added to the fleet. The increased capacity has enabled SWISS to serve new destinations such as Delhi, Shanghai, Florence, St. Petersburg, Sofia and Valencia, and to add further frequencies to existing services throughout its route network.

SWISS currently serves 76 destinations worldwide with a fleet of 77 aircraft. The next major fleet development will begin next spring, when the airline’s Airbus A330-200s will start to be replaced by new, bigger, more advanced and more fuel-efficient A330-300s. The renewal will not only enable SWISS to share in further market growth; it will also reduce the fuel consumption and the specific CO2 emissions of its A330 fleet by a sizeable 13 per cent.