Actually, the last Airbus A220 - formerly Bombardier C-Series - at Swiss should have joined the fleet the course of this year. But now the process has been delayed. The last A220 will not join the fleet until the end of 2020, confirms a spokeswoman of the airline.
Swiss has converted the last yet to be delivered aircraft into one of the larger versions. Instead of an A220-100 now an A220-300 is to join the airline. It offers space for 145 passengers, compared to 125 for the A220-100. And because the larger version is more popular with airlines, the delivery slots are available later.
Better economics than the smaller version
«The CS300 has the better economics than the CS100 and has established itself as the preferred model,» explains the spokeswoman. For flight operations, Swiss only needs eight of the smaller jets - for London City and Florence. The larger version is not yet certified for landing at London City Airport.
The fact that Swiss still speaks of the «CS100 and CS300» is due to the fact that the aircraft have not yet been renamed by the airline. But Swiss is working on the name change. It's not just a matter of adapting the public image and redesigning advertising material, but also of hundreds of documentations and official entries that need to be changed. The set date for the name change is the start of the 2019/20 winter flight schedule at the end of this month, confirms Swiss once again.
Swiss switches to larger version of the Airbus A220
Swiss A220-300: The airline prefers the bigger version.
