On Friday, September 18th, SWISS took delivery of its very first A321neo from Airbus. The brand new aircraft flew from Airbus’ Hamburg Finkenwerder assembly plant to SWISS’ Zurich hub. This marks the first of a total of eight A321neos ordered by the Lufthansa Group airline.
The brand new aircraft
With a total of eight A321neos on order, SWISS has taken delivery of its very first from Airbus. The aircraft is registered as HB-JPA and has the nickname “Stoos,” which is the name of a village in the Swiss canton of Schwyz.
Before being delivered to SWISS, the aircraft was first spotted without its engines in early May with test registration D-AYAO. According to AIB Family Flights, it was spotted with its new and efficient PW1133G engines about two months later, at the end of June.
It is recorded as having a total of four test flights with a total test flight time of five hours and 20 minutes.
SWISS took delivery today of its first Airbus A321neo. The aircraft, which bears the registration HB-JPA, has been named “Stoos”. With this addition to the fleet SWISS is further underlining its commitment to resource-friendly aviation. pic.twitter.com/MMTo46pPGO
— LX_Newsroom (@LX_Newsroom) September 18, 2020
As for seating configuration, Simple Flying contacted the airline to determine the layout of the new aircraft. However, at the time of publication, no response had been received. SWISS’ has historically configured its A321s differently – some having a single class layout while others have a business class cabin as well.
The delivery flight from Hamburg to Zurich
The delivery-journey was assigned flight number LX5221 and took place on September 18th just before 17:00 local time. Flying for an hour and six minutes, the aircraft took off from Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) for Zurich (ZRH), covering nearly the entire length of Germany. The new jet touched down in Zurich at 17:58.
While Airbus has numerous production sites scattered across Europe (Germany, France, Spain, UK), the company’s Hamburg Finkenweder site in Germany manages structural assembly and outfitting of fuselage sections.
It is actually one of three final assembly facilities for A320 Family aircraft – the other two being Mobile, Alabama (USA), and Tianjin (China).
More Airbus narrowbodies on the way
This latest Airbus delivery follows earlier A320neo family arrivals, with the first A320neo delivery to the airline in February 2020. Two A320neos are now with the SWISS fleet, and the carrier is expected to take 15 more A320neos as well as seven A321neos.
These 25 A320neo family aircraft will eventually replace the airline’s older A320ceo and A321ceo aircraft.
According to data from Planespotters.net, the airline has a total of 91 aircraft in its fleet. In addition to 12 Boeing 777-300 aircraft, the fleet has the following Airbus jets:
- 29 A220s
- 21 A320s
- 10 A321s
- 14 A330s
- Five A340s
SWISS is actually one of the few carriers in the world still operating the Airbus A340 – which is becoming rarer and rarer as airlines retire less efficient quad jets.
Have you flown on an A321neo yet? Have you noticed much of a difference from the A321ceo? Please share your experience with us by leaving a comment.