Swiss will be expanding its intercontinental network by 2020 with new routes to Washington and Osaka from its Zurich hub, in addition to the year-round service to Miami from March, which until now has only been offered in winter. The new service will operate daily from March 26, flying on Washington will enable European passengers to connect to the hub of its Star Alliance partner, United Airlines, which already offers a daily flight between Washington-Dulles and Zurich. Swiss's service to the US capital will be operated by an Airbus A330-300 configured for 236 passengers with eight seats in first class - Swiss is one of the very few airlines to currently offer first class to Washington from Europe -, 45 seats in business and 183 in economy.
A little earlier, on March 1, Swiss will also be launching services on the Zurich-Osaka Kansai route, taking over from its predecessor Swissair. The Swiss carrier will offer five weekly flights, in addition to its daily service to Tokyo. The new flight to Osaka will be served by an Airbus A340-300, the same type of aircraft that currently operates the route with Tokyo. The A340 will offer 223 seats in a three-class configuration (eight in First, 47 in Business and 168 in Economy).
Although the Airbus A340 is a somewhat ageing aircraft, it is due to be refurbished around 2021. However, Swiss plans to replace them with Boeing 787-9s or Airbus A350-900s by 2025. At the same time, Swiss will introduce its Premium Eco class on its Boeing 777-300ERs. The airline has already indicated that the seat will offer 20% more space between each row and a 25% higher recline than the current eco class.
For its part, Swiss's parent company, the Lufthansa Group, has also just announced the launch of new long-haul destinations from Munich and Frankfurt in spring 2020. A programme strongly oriented towards the United States. From Munich, Lufthansa will launch flights to Detroit and Seattle under its own brand, as well as Las Vegas and Orlando with a Eurowings aircraft due to the seasonal nature of these two destinations. At the same time, Bangalore will be added to the Asia network from Munich.
In Frankfurt, the airline is reopening a historic route to Anchorage, Alaska, as well as to Phoenix. The flights will be operated by Eurowings. Other new services for the summer 2020 season: Windhoek in Namibia and Barbados from Frankfurt.
