Swiss switches 10 CS100s to CS300s; aims for mid-2016 EIS with CS100

Swiss International Air Lines said it will place the first Bombardier CSeries into revenue service in the middle of 2016 and also announced it is converting 10 of its 30 CSeries orders from the CS100 to the larger CS300.

Swiss plans to take delivery of 10 CS100s in 2016 and will then take delivery of 10 CS300s in 2017.

It will decide by the end of 2016 on the model breakdown for the 10 CSeries aircraft slated to be delivered to Swiss in 2018.

The details were provided Monday by Swiss and Bombardier as the airline and manufacturer displayed a CS100 with Swiss livery at the Paris Air Show. The aircraft will fly from Le Bourget to Zurich later this week for demonstrations in Switzerland.

Swiss CEO Harry Hohmeister said the airline, a subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, has invested nearly $2 billion in the CSeries, which will gradually replace the carrier’s fleet of Avro RJ100s starting next year. Hohmeister said the CS100 will fly “to all kinds of destinations” in Europe and by the beginning of 2017 will fly to London City Airport.

Swiss’s CS100s will be configured with 125 seats with a five-abreast layout in economy class. The aircraft will have five first-class seats, but the first-class section will have a “flexible curtain” so more premium seats can be added on certain routes, Hohmeister said. He said the CSeries will be 25% more efficient on a unit cost basis compared to the Avro RJ100.

(Aaron Karp - ATWOnline News)