First Boeing 777-300 in the
Lufthansa Group during its first day of commercial operations!
Swiss Global Air Lines (until
February 2015 Swiss European Air Lines) is a subsidiary of
Swiss International Air Lines and therefore also of the Lufthansa Group. Like its parent,
Swiss Global is part of the
Star Alliance. It has its legal headquarters in
Basel, on the grounds of
Zurich Airport and the town of Kloten. Swiss Global Air Lines operates scheduled flights in the name and corporate design of its parent
Swiss International to
European and in future worldwide metropolitan and some leisure destinations from
Zürich Airport.
Swiss Global Air Lines was founded in
2005, named Swiss European Air Lines back then, to operate
European routes for its parent company.
On 11
March 2009, the Lufthansa Group board announced that, in 2014, it plans to gradually replace the current
Avro RJ100 fleet flown by Swiss Global with aircraft of the
Bombardier CSeries. The replacement of the current 20 aircraft is planned to take two years, while an additional 10 aircraft will be delivered thereafter to allow for capacity expansion.
The new aircraft will allow Swiss to continue serving restricted destinations such as
London City Airport or
Peretola Airport. With the delays the Bombardier CSeries experiences this date has been postponed to
2015. The Lufthansa Group is a launch customer for this aircraft type, and had previous signed a letter of intent for up to 60 aircraft.
In
December 2014, Swiss announced to retract from
EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg altogether by 31 May 2015 which means that Swiss Global Air Lines shut down their focus city operations there and subsequently concentrated on its operations in
Zürich.
On
3 February 2015 Swiss International Air Lines announced the rebranding of Swiss European Air Lines to Swiss Global Air Lines.
It was also confirmed on the same date, that Swiss International's 6 ordered
Boeing 777-300ER will be operated by Swiss Global Air Lines. These planes, with deliveries being expected in 2016, will be the first aircraft for intercontinental flights in Swiss Global Air Lines' fleet. A further 3 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft were ordered in 2015, bringing the commitment up to 9 aircraft.By
April 2015, Swiss Global Air Lines requested traffic rights for flights to the
United States to utilize the 777s on its parent's intercontinental routes. The rights have been granted by June 2015 and will be first used for flights to
New York City from 2016.
At the 2015
Paris Air Show, the airline announced to switch 10 of its 30 orders for the
Bombardier CS100 to the larger
CS300.
On 2
August 2015 the first Avro RJ100 HB-IXW was pushed out. The second airplane, HB-IXX, was withdrawn from use on
28 September 2015.
The 777-300ER ("ER" for Extended
Range) is the C-market version of the -300. It features raked and extended wingtips, a wing aspect ratio of 9.0, a new main landing gear, reinforced nose gear, and extra fuel tanks.It also has a strengthened fuselage, wings, empennage, and engine attachments. The -300ER is powered by the GE90-115B turbofan, which is the world's most powerful jet engine in service, with a maximum thrust of 115,
300 lbf (
513 kN).Its maximum range is 7,370 nautical miles (13,650 km), made possible by higher
MTOW and increased fuel capacity. The -300ER can fly approximately 34 percent farther than the -300 with a full load of passengers and cargo.
Following flight testing, aerodynamics refinements have reduced fuel burn by an additional 1.4 percent.
The first -300ER was delivered to
Air France on
April 29, 2004. The -300ER is the best-selling
777 variant, having surpassed the -200ER in orders in
2010 and deliveries in
2013. Since its launch, the model has been a primary driver of the twinjet's sales past the rival
A330/340 series. Using two engines produces a typical operating cost advantage of around 8–9 percent for the -300ER over the
A340-600, along with a 20 percent fuel burn advantage over the
747-400. Several airlines have acquired the -300ER as a 747-400 replacement amid rising fuel prices.[86]
As of January 2016, -300ER deliveries to 39 different customers totaled 620, with 176 unfilled orders. Operators had
575 aircraft in service as of July 2015. The -300ER's direct Airbus competitors have included the A340-600HGW and the
A350-1000.
- published: 09 Feb 2016
- views: 89