SWISS ups capacity and comfort

From 26 October 2008 SWISS will begin operating its thrice-daily service between Manchester and Zurich with an Airbus A319, replacing the route’s current 100-seater Fokker operation. The A319s are 124-seater aircraft, representing a 24 per cent increase in seats on this route.

The change will represent an increase in in-flight comfort, as currently used Fokkers have 84cms leg room and 43.2cms seat width throughout the aircraft, whereas the A319s boast a 76.2cm seat pitch and a seat width of 45.7cms in economy class and seat pitch of 81.3cms seat width of 50.8cms in business class. Business class passengers will consequently be benefiting from an addition 5.1cms seat width.

Gregor Koncilja, country manager UK and Ireland at SWISS, said, “SWISS’s continuously increasing seat load factors, which consistently exceed 80 per cent on our Manchester to Zurich route, made clear the demand for this significant increase in capacity.

“We have found the route ever more popular with business and leisure travellers alike and SWISS is looking forward to flying an ever-increasing number of passengers from the Manchester area to Zurich and onwards to our network of 76 destinations worldwide.

“SWISS is really pleased to be offering our customers in northwest England and northern Wales the added comfort and increased seat width of the A319s and are delighted at this concrete indicator of our growing market share out of Manchester,” continued Gregor.

“We believe that the growth is due to our customer’s confidence in SWISS as a highly profitable airline which has been able to make considerable investments this year in the face of the current economic downturn. We know that Switzerland will also always remain popular with Britons who travel there, amongst other things, for skiing and banking, and perhaps a combination of the two.”

For further information and bookings visit swiss.com/uk.