[Anonymous]

[LuganoPirate]

This from Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/swiss-mulling-747-8-for-fleet-upgrade-following-parent-lufthansa.html

This would be great as far as I’m concerned as I love the 747’s and I’d hope they’d use them on the JNB route. These flights are usually full and often overbooked so they could use the extra capacity a 747 would offer.

What about other existing routes or new destinations for Swiss? Any ideas?

[BA319131]

A rather sensational title to this thread, you have chosen to omitted that they are also looking at the 777 and A350.

IMO I don’t think the 748 has much chance unless Boeing offer a killer deal, it’s too much of a capacity jump over the existing fleet and not as economical as a 777 or A350.

Edited, added or.

[Senator]

I would tend to agree with BA319131 that the B747-800i looks too big for Swiss. To replace 13 routes with an increase from 219 seats to 370+ is a stretch.

The advantage of the mixed A330/A340 is the certification for the crew both on the flight deck and in the cabin. They can work on both. This raises another question; how many different aircraft types do you want to have?

In LuganoPirate defence; his title is merely a reflection of Bloomberg’s own title.

[FirstTraveller]

I doubt we will see a 748i in LX colors. Probably the most ideal plane to serve LX in the future is A350-1000 or the troubled 787-10.

The LX 748i is just a dream.

[sparkyflier]

Well the old Swissair had an extensive fleet of 747-300s, and had no problems filling them.But back in the 80s airlines like AF and BA were a bit of a disaster service wise, so “SR” was a sought after carrier.

Nowadays they are pretty good, and you would think the A350 would be a logical next aircraft to replace their A340s, however, bear in mind its owner, Lufthansa, is finding it difficult too expand further due to the curfew at FRA and MUN deciding not to have a 3rd runway, so expansion can only come from the other hubs – ZRH, VIE & BRU.

There may therefore be a need to have a small fleet for the busiest routes, whilst sharing costs with the exising 748 LH fleet.
JNB, JFK and GRU would I imagine be the most likely routes for such an aircraft.

[Jetman1962]

There is of course another side to this, Lufthansa who have a fleet of 747-8i due to rise to 25 and own a controlling chunk of Swiss may see it as viable option, especially as they have a European service centre for the aircraft at Frankfurt. Swiss operate a not very profitable number of A340-300 they use on the SFO and PVG routes for example, both growth areas. These could easily benefit from 747-8i. Lufthansa is enjoying considerable success with them and I can see why, a recent flight Dulles for the inauguration was frankly, wonderful.

[BA319131]

Jetman1962, all of the Swiss A340’s are the -300 model, they do not or ever have operated the -500.

[Jetman1962]

I think it says that.

[KSHaggag]

As much as I would love Swiss operating the best ,largest ,most beautiful aircraft in the world ,as much as I see 747-800 toooooo huge for LX ….even on the busiest routes !….moreover ,Swiss has a whole Airbus fleet for long and short haul routes ,so how much savings lie there behind this concept ?..indeed big …I would rather see Swiss consider the A350-9 or A350-1000 for its high density longhaul routes e.g. HKG,JNB,GRU,LAX,etc…I doubt LH would like to see its hub in FRA relocated to ZRH for big traffic flows even if LH is the big owner now …FRA has a much bigger catchment area and is connected to a huge number of destinations both in Europe and intercontinentally to feed those flights out of FRA operated by a 747-800 ,something ZRH cannot afford !…so who will fill those Dinosaur aircraft out of ZRH ???!…my dear LX ,,,stick to Airbus and say to Mami LH that she would better keep the 747-800 for FRA …it makes much more business sense …( for both the Mother and the Daughter ) ..

[LuganoPirate]

It sometimes happens that the child is more successful than the parent. This is certainly the case with LX at the moment re LH passenger operations with LX making more money from those ops than the Germans.

The Swiss are very conservative and are not given to making announcements without there being some substance to them, so if they say they are looking at the 748 then I’m sure they are, even if to play Airbus off against Boeing. There would be several cost advantages in operating the 748 bearing in mind LH is already operating them so this could be a factor.

I can’t see Swiss acquiring them for at least another five years by which time passenger growth could easily justify the extra 100 seats over the A350 on high density routes such as JNB, BKK, NYC and possibly Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

As to LH using ZRH as another hub, this I doubt very much. They have Munich and will no doubt develop Berlin as well. Further LH and LX operate as two very separate companies with Swiss benefitting mainly from transit passengers. Like KLM it also serves some of the larger UK regional airports and these have been big growth markets for Swiss in recent years as people from those areas seek to avoid Heathrow.

All in all I think (and hope) it could be a real possibility and I believe operating the 748 in itself would drive more traffic to Swiss.

[KSHaggag]

Thanks ,Lugano Pirate !..I sincerely hope to see Swiss as the most successful and best carrier in the world ,spanning the whole globe ..I am sure the swiss know what they are talking about ..let s see how things will develop ..I wish i were swiss ,by the way !

I hope to see Swiss regaining its position in longhaul markets especially in Africa where it used to be one of the srongest two decades ago ..Abidjan,Lagos ,Libreville,Douala,Yaounde,Malabo ,Cape Town,Accra ,Dakar ,etc….etc…maybe today the money spinning areas are different ….hope to see Swiss plying new routes to South America ( Bogota,Rio ,Buenos Aires ,Mexico City ,etc….)

[Wasborntotravel]

Swiss have announced this morning that they have ordered 6 777-300 (no in service dates yet that I’ve seen) and will start to phase out the 15 A340 from 2016.

No announcement on the replacements for the balance of the long haul fleet. Apparently that’s still pending.

Their rational for the 777-300 is fuel efficiency so I’d be surprised if they went for the 747-8.

Will be interesting to see if they bring in any service enhancements for the 777.

[Senator]

I am surprised by this move… Here is the You Tube film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtlOGzw6UHE

[AMcWhirter]

The B777-300ERs will be more economical for Swiss to operate.

I wonder if this large plane will prompt Swiss into offering a premium economy cabin ?

As I reported a couple of months ago, Lufthansa is seriously considering offering premium economy so it would make sense for Swiss to adopt the concept too.

And when it comes to Y class … will Swiss adopt the 10-across layout as most new B777-300ER operators are doing ?

[Author]

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