The A350 has long been in pole position at the Lufthansa subsidiary. Swiss will definitely announce the switch to the new Airbus long-haul jet very soon. This also has consequences for Edelweiss.
The choice had been clear for a long time. «We choose high probability the Airbus A350 or the Boeing 787. Both fit our current fleet,” said former Swiss boss Thomas Klühr three years ago in an interview with aeroTELEGRAPH. The 787 is compatible with the 777, the A350 with the A330.
And Klühr went on to explain that the remaining five Airbus A340s, which will then be around 23 years old, will be replaced with the new long-haul aircraft from 2025. meanwhile has Swiss decided to give one of the four-radiators to sister Edelweiss to deliver. However, the four remaining copies will be phased out as planned. As a replacement, the new Airbus long-haul model has been in pole position for some time.
Airbus A350 allows superior First Class
And now the die seems to have definitely been cast. “Our clear preference is of course the Airbus A350,” said CEO and Klühr successor Dieter Vranckx this week at an event like that Aargau newspaper reported. So far, no representative of the Lufthansa subsidiary has made such a clear statement, especially not a high-ranking one.
The reason Swiss wants the A350 is that it’s bigger. Compared to the Boeing 787, it has a fuselage that is 19 centimeters wider and a cabin that is 12 centimeters wider. In addition, the Dreamliner in the 787-9 version ordered by Lufthansa is around four meters shorter than the A350-900. Both together open up more scope for the installation of a superior first class, which Swiss absolutely wants and also needs with its more affluent customers.
Also a replacement for the Airbus A330?
It won’t be long before the official decision is made. A decision will be made this year, Vranckx continued in the report. Lufthansa Group still has 28 orders for the A350-900 open. As a first step, Swiss could therefore take four copies from the order.
But in the coming years there is already another decision to be made. Swiss will also have to replace the 14 Airbus A330s from 2030. It is therefore possible that Swiss will soon announce that it will replace both long-distance models with one. So it could procure more than four Airbus A350-900s.
And what does Edelweiss do?
The Swiss fleet would then consist of Boeing 777-300 ER and A350-900. With the delivery of the first A350 in 2025, the Lufthansa subsidiary will also be one introduce new Business and a new First Class.
The question is what Edelweiss will do when Swiss switches to Airbus A350. Also the Sister is already thinking about how they will replace their four-radiators one day – above all against the background of the climate problem. It is possible that the old mechanism will take hold here. Edelweiss could at least take over some of Swiss’ A330s when these A350s enter the fleet. The A330s belong to the airline itself and are currently only around twelve years old. The downside: their range is significantly less than that of the A340.