SWISS has unveiled its new cabin products, under the banner of “SWISS Senses”. SWISS is of course part of the Lufthansa group, so these products are basically Lufthansa’s “Allegris” cabin products, fitted with SWISS finishes. These new cabin products are the centrepiece of what SWISS promises is a “totally new and personalised travel experience”. That kind of sounds like how Lufthansa describe “Allegris”, but then of course it is the same products.
I won’t go through each cabin product in great detail in this post, since I’ve already shared my thoughts on every product in these posts:
- Lufthansa “Allegris” & First Class Suite Details
- Lufthansa’s New “Allegris” Business Class Seat Details
- Lufthansa’s New Premium Economy and Economy Details
SWISS New First Class Suite
As with “Allegris, the new SWISS First class consists of fully-enclosed suites with sliding doors and 1.8m-high suite walls. The headline of the product is the middle suite that can be configured for two passengers travelling together. The seats will be 77cm wide for the window suite, and 117cm for the middle suite. Given that SWISS seems to showing renderings of an A330 with the products, I’m assuming those figures will apply to the A330, which will debut SWISS Senses. The bed will stretch out to 2m, with heating/cooling functions. The main features are the same as “Allegris”: a personal wardrobe, a tablet for controlling the inflight entertainment and suite and wireless charging.
The main difference with “Allegris” are the finishes. SWISS states the warm colours and wood features convey “a strong sense of comfort and calm within top-quality surrounds.”
I’ve shared my concerns regarding the practicality of middle suite in my post on “Allegris”. My main issues centre (pun intended) on how practical it actually is to have a double suite. Bearing in mind the suite shares a single screen, and no armrest between the two individual suites. It sounds like a great idea, but I’m not too sure all couples will actually enjoy that. Furthermore, I’m not sure how SWISS, and Lufthansa, will manage the inventory in First class. It’s tricky when there’s physically only 3 suites, but a maximum passenger capacity of 4. Which applies if, and only if, there’s a couple travelling together.
Specifically on the SWISS version, I actually think I like the SWISS colour scheme a little more. It’s feels warmer, with more splash of colours and contrast. However, SWISS has indicated they will be installing on some of their A330 fleet. The A330 cabin with is not-insignificantly narrower than the A350, so the First suite will have to be correspondingly narrower. Take a look at the render below, doesn’t it look rather narrow? With 4 seats across, in 3 suites, I can imagine the First Class on the A330 may feel a little cramped relatively to an A350 or 777.
SWISS New Business Class seat
For the new Business class, SWISS states that it has been conceived to “meet a wide range of wishes and needs”. Lufthansa listed seven different options for their version, and while SWISS doesn’t list as many – only 5 specifically – there’s still quite a bit of variety. Interestingly, SWISS only makes vague mention of a Business Suite, with sliding doors. I would expect the features to be identical as Lufthansa, so I’m surprised SWISS isn’t making bigger mention of suite’s extra features such as the wardrobe and minibar. Unless SWISS hasn’t opted for those features, which is unlikely. Besides the suites and classic seats, SWISS have also listed extra privacy, extra long bed, double seat and extra space seats.
Common features across the new Business class seats include heating and cooling function and wireless charging. As with First class, the inflight entertainment can be controlled from a tablet-sized device in the seat. The colour scheme is quite similar to First class, with the same warm colours and wood finishes. There’s a lot more use of claret here, with the seat fabrics decked out in that colour. As with the First suite, I’d expect the business class seats to be narrower on the A330.
SWISS New Premium Economy seat
Technically, this Premium Economy isn’t new. These are fixed hard shell ZIMprivacy seats, with 39inch pitch and 18inch width. The seat has actually already debuted in 2022, on the 777 fleet. SWISS was the first airline in the Lufthansa Group to introduce these seats. Features of the Premium Economy seat include the 15.6inch 4K inflight entertainment monitor and wireless charging.
SWISS New Economy seat
Economy class gets some minor improvements. As with Lufthansa, this will be the Recaro CL3710//3810 range. The inflight entertainment monitors get a bump up to 13.3inches and 4K resolution. SWISS will also introduce extra legroom rows with the new Economy class seat. Typical of Economy seats nowadays, these seats have much slimmer backrests. It’s not quite the slimline seats we see on intra-Europe short-haul, but it’s pretty close.
Which aircraft will feature SWISS Senses?
The new cabin products will debut on SWISS’ A330-300 from 2025, which is a year later than Lufthansa “Allegris”, in terms of the First class suites. The airline’s 777-300ERs will also be retrofitted with the new products, though some (all?) of the 777s already have the new Premium Economy installed, which was introduced in mid-2022. The A350s destined for SWISS, currently expected sometime in 2025 as well, will be delivered with the new cabins already installed.
SWISS has released the seat map for the A330s post-retrofit. The reconfigured A330 will feature 3 First suites (max 4 passengers), 43 business class, 21 Premium Economy and 159 Economy seats, for a maximum of 227 seats. That’s compared to the current layout which has 8 First, 45 Business and 183 Economy (236 total). Here’s the seat map post-retrofit:
Conclusion
SWISS have unveiled their new “SWISS Senses” products, which is their version of Lufthansa’s “Allegris” products. The products are near identical to Lufthansa, just with different finishes and colour scheme. The new products will be retrofitted to their existing A330 and 777 fleets from 2025, while the A350-900s – also due from 2025 – will come delivered with these products.
Featured image courtesy of SWISS