Newer cabins on older aircraft: Swiss completes A340 refurbishment program

Jan. 21, 2020

•

3 min read

Newer cabins on older aircraft: Swiss completes A340 refurbishment program

This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.

All of Swiss' Airbus A340-300 aircraft have gotten some new life. On Tuesday, the airline revealed that it had completed its refurbishment program for all A340s in its fleet.

Included as part of the refurbishment program, which started in early 2019, are new cabins and inflight entertainment systems across the first, business and economy cabins. The new hard product is similar to what passengers can expect to find on the airline's Boeing 777 aircraft — a vast improvement over the older, outdated products.

Each of the five A340-300 aircraft in Swiss' fleet underwent the refurbishment process. In first class, passengers can expect eight suites, which are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. Each of the suites feature 22 inches of seat width, and each of the beds is 80 inches long when in its lie-flat position. As part of the refurbishment, each of the first-class suites also features a 32-inch inflight entertainment screen.

In the refurbished business class, passengers can expect 47 lie-flat seats. Each of the seats features 20.5 inches of width and is 79 inches long when in its lie-flat position. Meanwhile, the IFE screen measures 16 inches.

Farther back, economy passengers can expect a total of 164 seats spread across a preferable 2-4-2 configuration. Each of the seats measures 17.1 inches wide and offers 31 inches of pitch. Each of the IFE screens at the seats measures 11 inches.

Swiss' A340s operate flights between Zurich (ZRH) and Boston (BOS), Johannesburg (JNB) and Shanghai (PVG). As of 1 March, the airline will also launch the retrofitted A340 on service between ZRH and Osaka (KIX).

All of Swiss' long-haul aircraft, including these refurbished A340 aircraft, feature Wi-Fi connectivity. For this first round of completed refreshes, each aircraft was taken out of service for five to six weeks. According to PlaneSpotters.net, Swiss' fleet of five A340s have an average age 16.3 years.