Swiss to Lease Embraer Aircraft as CSeries Delivery Drags Out
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Swiss subsidiary will lease Embraer SA 190 models starting next year because the Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries aircraft on order won’t arrive in time to contribute to capacity expansion.
The planes will be leased from Helvetic Airways AG to phase out 20 less efficient BAE Systems Plc Avro regional jets, which will eventually be replaced by 30 CSeries planes slated for delivery between 2015 and 2017, Chief Executive Officer Harry Hohmeister said at a presentation in Zurich today. Swiss may still hold on to the Embraers beyond delivery of the CSeries, Hohmeister said.
New planes will lift the number of seats by 2 percent next summer, as Swiss adds 22 new European destinations from Zurich. Swiss is spending 5 billion Swiss francs ($5.18 billion) on new aircraft as Lufthansa’s most profitable airline tries to defend its home turf against EasyJet Plc and Etihad Regional, the former Darwin Airline partly owned by the Gulf carrier.
A new cabin design of the Airbus A320 aircraft will allow for 12 extra seats, with 19 more on the A321 models. The makeover will preserve the same level of comfort in economy and boost the amenities in business class, the carrier said. Swiss also plans to phase out smaller A319 planes by 2017 at the latest.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey Vögeli in Zurich at jvogeli@bloomberg.net; Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net David Risser
