Early in 2026, SWISS announced that it would be withdrawing its fleet of nine Airbus A 220-100s in the face of ongoing technical issues with the aircraft, and that it would be using them for spare parts to keep their fleet of twenty A 220-300 in service. Next, Lufthansa decided that the group’s short-haul fleet strategy needed to be standardised, centred around the Airbus A 320/321 NEO family. And that, unavoidably, sounded the death knell of SWISS’ Airbus A 220 programme. Personally, I’m not convinced that this is the end for the A 220-300. Knowing SWISS, they’ll probably just transfer them to Helvetic’s AOC. We’ll see.

Getting to the Airport

I arrive at Zürich Airport at 07h26. My flight to Luxembourg departs at 08h30. I’m running slightly behind schedule. They’re currently working on the rail line between Olten and Aarau, and the detour takes a slightly longer route with speed restrictions. At least the airport is not too busy, so security shouldn’t take too long.

SWISS Business Class Check-In

Apparently, when I booked this trip I selected the option to be checked in automatically and get notified by mail. To be honest, I can’t remember selecting this option intentionally, but it works sufficiently well.

The SWISS Senator Lounge at Zürich Airport

By the time I’m through security, it’s 07h35 and I’m starving. I haven’t had breakfast yet. I have thirty minutes to quickly visit the lounge and get a cup of coffee and something to eat.

The SWISS Senator lounge is rather busy and unpleasantly warm, to the point that I’m wondering if the air conditioning is on the blink. I quickly down a cappuccino and two Gipfeli, and then I leave again.

SWISS Business Class Boarding

The flight to Luxembourg is boarding from gate B03, which means we’re on a remote stand. Construction of the new A pier is gradually picking up pace at Zürich Airport. As a result of that, there are fewer contact stands available.

I’m on the first bus out. By the time we reach the aircraft, it’s started raining lightly. The bus doors open and all passengers make a quick dash to the airplane. But just as soon at it starts, the drizzle stops again.

SWISS Business Class Cabin & Seat

I’m seated on 1A, which is the window seat on the bulkhead row on the twin seats. The pitch on row 1 is not bad. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably better than on SWISS’ A 320 fleet. The Business Class cabin on today’s flight is rather large and reaches back to row eight, and the load is good. In total, there are 105 passengers on board.

SWISS Business Class Service & Crew

As usual, there’s a bottle of still water and a packaged wet towel at my seat when I board. This is something I’ve come to appreciate with SWISS. Not many airlines still offer either water or towels on European flights. The maître de is a strapping young man who barely fits in the cabin of the Airbus A 220. His head is only about a centimetre from the cabin ceiling, and he looks like he’s making an effort not to stretch to his full size. He’s polite and polished in his manners. Sadly, though, he is joined in the cabin by another young man who really has me wondering about the kind of vetting process SWISS goes through during the recruitment process. I’ll come back to that later. In any case, our flight time to Luxembourg is estimated at forty minutes.

We take off from runway 28, and immediately we pass through an active rain cell. We make a sharp left turn away from the worst of the weather and then spend the first fifteen minutes of the flight flying around some of the nastier cells in the the area during the climb.

SWISS Business Class Meal

The meal service is a bit odd. SWISS insists on serving a tray, despite the flight time of only forty minutes. On the tray there’s a small Weck glass with a red berry müsli, and a Gipfeli that is served with butter and jam. To be honest, I think that on such a short flight nobody really expects anything much from the service. I’m wondering if perhaps it wouldn’t be easier to simply pass through the cabin with a basket of plain Gipfeli and napkins and just leave it at that. A cursory glance at the seats around me confirms that hardly anybody on my flight, as far as I can see, bothers with the butter and jam.

And then, to conclude, it’s the obligatory small piece of Swiss chocolate. I love those little rectangles of sweet goodness, especially when they’re still slightly hard from the cool air aboard the aircraft.

Arrival in Luxembourg

Our approach brings us in right over the city. This is something that always amazes me here in Luxembourg. I mean, the A 220 is a modern, quiet aircraft and I suspect most people in the city probably wouldn’t even hear it passing by overhead. However, Luxembourg is also the hub and home of Cargolux and their fleet of Boeing 747-400s and -8s. Especially the former make a formidable racket and often climb out over the city at low altitude.

We land and taxi to our stand. I collect my belongings and move towards the front of the cabin to get ready to disembark. While we wait for the airbridge to be moved to the aircraft, the not so bright cabin crew strikes up a conversation with his colleague, the maître de. He tells him about a recent flight he did from Los Angeles back to Zürich. Apparently, the aircraft was already waiting at the holding point to enter the active runway at LAX before the captain realised that they had forgotten to arm the slides. Boarding had been a mess and a hurry, so that literally the entire crew forgot about the slides. The guy telling the story gleefully goes on about “es war so peinlich”, how embarrassing it was – seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was, more than anything else, a serious safety fail.

Here’s the thing. Of course, it’s not ideal that this happened at SWISS. However, one has to acknowledge that despite all human factors and crew resource management training the crews receive, a mistake like this can still happen at any airline. The whole purpose of introducing a just culture policy within a company or organisation is precisely so that stakeholders can learn from such mistakes and take measures to ensure that they don’t happen again. What is more questionable, in my view, is that the crew prattling on about this to their colleague on my flight obviously sees no problem in venting and gossiping about this kind of incident at the top of their voice in front of all passengers, some of which obviously speak good enough German to be able to understand every word. It’s just very unprofessional and, frankly, more than just a bit dumb.

Getting into Luxembourg

My flight arrives in Luxembourg at 08h27. By 08h35 I’m already on the tram and on my way into Kirchberg. Spot on time at 10h00 I enter the classroom to start this week’s course in Luxembourg. Public transport is free in Luxembourg.

Conclusion – SWISS Business Class

Starting in 2027, the Swiss Federal Railways, the French SNCF and the Belgian SNCB will be launching a new TGV rail service from Basel via Paris CDG Airport to Brussels. Despite the detour via Paris CDG, the journey time to Brussels will only be about five hours, which is manageable. Initially, I had hoped that the new service would also call at Luxembourg, which would, of course, be highly convenient for me. Alas, by the looks of it, the new line will branch off from the direct line at Strasbourg and head West to Paris from there. Even so, I’m hoping that there will be a decent connection in Strasbourg onto another TGV, which would make having to take a flight every time superfluous. Until then, I’m basically taking this flight with SWISS, which is okay but hardly the most efficient way to go. It’s either that or I’m going to have to get a driver’s licence after all in my old age.