SWISS took delivery of its first Airbus A350 on October 9. Its initial frame is registered HB-IFA. According to Flightradar24, it has recently been undertaking touch-and-go operations at Taranto, in Southern Italy, for crew training reasons.
Cirium Diio data shows that the A350 will enter service on October 25. This will, of course, be on short-haul legs for crew training and familiarization reasons. Its long-haul debut is due to take place on November 20 from Zurich to Boston. And in the latest development, it’ll operate to Montreal from February 23.
Boston Flights Take Off On November 20
SWISS has ordered ten A350-900s, all of which will have 242 seats. Based on SWISS Senses (Allegris but with SWISS branding), it provides a much better hard product than what’s on its other widebodies. It has three first-class suites (1-2-1; one of them is for two people), 45 seats in business (1-2-1), 38 in premium economy (2-3-2), and 156 in economy (3-3-3). Find lots of pictures here.
There is less than a month until the A350 takes off to 
Boston on November 20. For now, at least, it is scheduled to operate until March 28, which is the final day of the northern aviation winter based on IATA slot seasons. The 
Star Alliance member has not yet finalized its schedule for next summer. Many changes are coming.
The 242-seater will operate five times a week to Boston, while the three-class, 236-seat A330-300 will be used on the remaining two weekly services. It is not known when the reconfigured A330 (with four classes and fewer seats) will take over.
LX52 will depart from Switzerland at 17:30 and arrive in Massachusetts at 20:00/20:20 local time. Returning, LX53 will leave at 21:50/22:10 and get home at 11:10+1. While the A350 will briefly operate exclusively to Boston in January, frequencies will be reduced to four services a week thereafter. The A330 will consequently be seen three times weekly.
A350 Flights To Montreal Have Been Added
In SWISS’s schedule update over the weekend, A350 flights to Montreal were added. For now, at least, it is only due to operate between February 23 and March 28. As with Boston, it is currently unknown whether the A350 will be used to Montreal next summer. The A330-300 is currently scheduled to replace it entirely from March 29 onwards, but this could change again.
The A350 will fly to the Canadian city daily. It will be the first time the Star route, which covers 3,246 nautical miles (6,012 km) each way, has seen equipment other than the A330 since 2023, when the A340-300 was last flown. The 242-seater will thus provide Montreal with the most seats per flight in three years.
|
Frequency |
Zurich To Montreal; Local Times* |
Montreal to Zurich; Local Times** |
|---|---|---|
|
Daily |
LX86: 12:40-14:55 |
LX87: 16:55-06:15+1 |
|
* February 23-March 1 |
** February 23-March 1 |
SWISS’s North American Network In March
Let’s focus on March 1 to March 28, when the A350 will be flown to Boston and Montreal. During this period, SWISS plans ten routes to the US and Canada. Its most-served links will be its twice-daily offering from Zurich to Miami (A330-300/777-300ER) and New York JFK (A330-300).
Daily service will exist from Geneva to JFK (A330-300) and from Zurich to Boston (A330-300/A350-900), Chicago O’Hare (A330-300), Montreal (A350-900), Newark (A330-300), and San Francisco (777-300ER). Delta recently pulled out of Geneva.
SWISS will mainly operate daily to Los Angeles (777-300ER) and five times weekly to Washington Dulles (A330-300). In all, it plans up to 82 weekly departures to North America in the examined period. It’ll operate 58% of Switzerland’s passenger services to the US/Canada, which will rise to 90% when all Star operators are included.
