A look at SWISS in 2017… From 2026!
Happy New Year everyone and Welcome to 2026- Let's start by taking a look back by almost a decade…
This flight report is another archive flight I took in 2017, this time its covering the economy flight experience on Swiss International Airlines- or otherwise known simply as SWISS.
Swiss International Airlines started up operations as the 21st Century "Flag Carrier" of Switzerland in late 2002 following the demise of Swissair, which had operated from 1931-2002. Following the crash of Swissair SR111 in September 1998, a series of bad investments and the downturn in Aviation following the 9/11 Attacks in the US, Swissair found itself collapsing- but most of its assets were taken over by its regional partner Crossair!
Crossair operated from 1975 and provided regional services around Switzerland and nearby European countries. The semi-merger of Crossair and Swissair to form the current Swiss International led to a very diverse fleet of aircraft, but by 2017 the airline was basically an all-Airbus operator operating the Airbus A319, A320, A321 short-haul aircraft with the long-haul part of the fleet operating Airbus A330 and A340-300 aircraft once the former Swissair McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 fleet retired prior to the 2016 introduction of the Boeing 777-300ER!
A small exception was a fleet of Avro RJ100 flying regional routes as well as some Bombardier CS-100/CS-300 that were being introduced at the time, which I'll cover in the next report.
Swiss is a member of the Star Alliance and has been a long-term member of the Lufthansa Group alongside Austrian Airlines, Eurowings (with Germanwings at 2017) and the group was in the process of adding Brussels Airlines.
I had a chance to fly with Swiss in May 2017 in order to visit Zurich, one of the airline's two main hubs in Switzerland, and fly one last flight on a rare and retiring aircraft type in the fleet, but to get there and enjoy this flight on the rare aircraft… I had to get to Zurich Airport and that is where we are now- flying a Swiss Airbus A321 from London Heathrow to Zurich Kloten!
Swiss LX345 (LHR-ZRH)
My trip started at Terminal 2 "The Queen's Terminal" at London Heathrow Airport. My flight was one of the first flights to depart London Heathrow that day, and it still is almost a decade later! I got to the airport with a good 90 minutes to spare and by 5am I was airside, as you can see in the picture below… Getting to Heathrow for one of these first flights means you get to see a very eerily deserted airport!
It was over to the B-Gates for departure that day, and unlike Terminal 5, you have to walk underground from the main T2-A Gates over to the T2-B Gates. Boarding began about half hour before departure, but they put the gate up early to give people enough time to get over to the B-Gate pier… I made good timing.
According to the flight board, our flight was the first scheduled departure from Terminal 2, just a few minutes ahead of a TAP Portugal flight to Lisbon and a Frankfurt bound flight from Lufthansa. I was not sure if we got ahead of any flights from Terminals 3, 4 or 5 that day… We certainly didn't need to be concerned about Terminal 1 flights that morning… Okay, I'll get on with the flight!
Our flight was on an Airbus A321ceo of Swiss International Airlines registered as HB-IOM, I wasn't able to get a photo of my aircraft before boarding on this day… The aircraft we flew on was delivered brand new to Swiss in December 2010 and has flown with them ever since. During the pandemic some 3 years after I took this flight, the aircraft spent two stints in storage 3 months at Zurich Airport in Switzerland and 2 months at Amman Airport in Jordan. In either late-2016 or early-2017 the aircraft was repainted in the newer Swiss livery.
The cabin of this Swiss A321 was as you'd expect from any European airline in the 2010s/2020s. 3-3 layout of seats with a curtain used to separate Business Class from Economy Class with the ability to adjust the capacity on business class subject to demand. The seats had overhead lights and air vents as well as a modern looking LED screen showing the seat-belt sign and no-smoking sign…
My seat today was in 24A, just behind the left-wing, as you can see- if I was in Seat 24A, the divide for business class was quite far down the Airbus A321 that morning, so this might have been a flight full of business class flyers heading to meetings in Zurich or connecting onward to long-haul flights out of Zurich Airport later that day!
We had a pretty prompt departure from London Heathrow, I noticed that the flight wasn't too full in economy class either, quite a few empty seats. We had a short taxi to Runway 27L and we took off in the direction towards my then-home of East Berkshire. As we began to turn southbound for Switzerland on our climb we got a great view of the Staines Reservoir and King George VI Reservoir. It was a lovely day despite the clouds.
Two novelties about this aircraft when I flew it in 2017 was the inclusion of IFE Screens every few rows, something that almost all airline's in Europe have now done away with in the 2020s, though you can get these on personal devices if the aircraft was Wi-Fi, it should also be noted that Row 24, where I was sitting, is right next to a single lavatory on the right side of the aircraft… expect to be disturbed if you sit between Rows 21-26 on the Swiss A321 if they still have this mid-aircraft lavatory, best, perhaps, even avoid Rows 21-26 if you have a weak sense of smell too.
A free snack and drink service was provided to economy class on Swiss at the time of this flight in May 2017. The crew gave me a chocolate corn bun alongside a cola drink and a hot breakfast tea- which I had to use "coffee creamer" in place of milk. I thought this was a nice touch for this 1.5hr flight.
I believe in 2025 (I've not flown Swiss since 2017) Swiss still offers complimentary water and a small traditional Swiss-branded chocolate bar with the option to pre-order or pay on-board for more substantial food and beverage offerings.
The flight passed uneventful as we crossed over the English Channel and North-West France before entering Swiss airspace near Basel, which is home to the "Euro-Airport" of Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. As we crossed Basel, that is basically where we started our descent into Zurich, overall the flight saw very little turbulence before we got to the Alps.
During the last 30 minutes of the flight, we got the famous bar of Swiss chocolate, mine didn't go to waste, I enjoyed it fully!
It was a clear day on arrival into Zurich Airport, so I got to see some nice views on arrival into Zurich Airport of various towns and villages amongst the mountain ranges near Zurich. Switzerland is such a photogenic country on a good day, I can see why so many British tourists go out there in the Winter months…
On finals I even shot a photo of a Quarry (or mining facility) near the Zurich Airport… it looked somewhat out of place amongst the forestry and villages.
We made an on time arrival and taxied over to our stand where the flight was concluded, after that it was off to clear the passport control and enter the Schengen Zone and go do a bit of plane spotting at Zurich Airport before heading into the city for a look around on this lovely late Spring day!
Check out the Travelling feature below to see some of the photos I got on my day in Zurich city centre and at the Zurich Airport viewing deck!
