First refurbished SWISS Airbus A340 returns to revenue service

The first SWISS Airbus A340 with a totally refurbished interior in all three seating cabins took off from Zurich today on its first revenue flight. Aircraft HB-JMH departed at 13:25 on flight LX 160 to Tokyo.

HB-JMH is the first of SWISS’s five Airbus A340s to be given this nose-to-tail cabin refurbishment. The aircraft are undergoing the work one after the other; and under current planning, all five A340s should be refurbished by summer of this year.

The refurbishment programme entails developing and installing new First, Business and Economy Class seats, providing a new inflight entertainment system that also offers internet connectivity, installing new galleys and comprehensively modernizing the entire interior (including adopting a new lighting concept) in all three seating cabins. The refurbishment delivers further passenger benefits, too, and raises the inflight comfort aboard SWISS’s Airbus A340s to that of its Boeing 777s.

Next to Tokyo SWISS’s Airbus A340s are deployed on services to such destinations as Boston, Johannesburg, Shanghai and Tel Aviv. SWISS has five A340s in its long-haul fleet, together with 14 Airbus A330s and ten Boeing 777-300ERs. The SWISS long-haul network currently extends to 24 destinations.