In an initial step, SWISS’s new Premium Economy Class will be successively installed in all 12 of its Boeing 777-300ERs. Reflecting the emerging trend of both bleisure and premium leisure travellers, the airline couldn’t wait any longer to roll out the product, and should COVID not have halted proceedings, “the product would have come out a little sooner” hints Goudarzi Pour. With just three rows, this semi-private cabin of 24 seats offers screams intimacy, with entirely different menus to those behind, as well as larger, fixed-shell reclining seats, priority boarding and a wave of additional perks, from discounted lounge access to additional baggage allowance. This is clear as the new cabin which sits neatly behind the Business Class compartment, taking away real estate from the economy class cabin, rather than eating into the existing, larger (and more lucrative) Business Class and First Class cabin which sits in front. “We wanted to ensure there wouldn’t be much in the way of cannibalisation of the Business Class product, instead positioning this as an upsell for Economy Class passengers” Tamur Goudarzi Pour, CCO, SWISS, second from the right “We wanted to see how the Premium Economy product was performing with Austrian and Lufthansa, and the results were extraordinarily good,” Says Tamur Goudarzi Pour, CCO of SWISS.

But why has the airline been the last in the group to adopt this mid-cabin class? While the airline started with a range of improvements to its ground product and older A340 fleet a few years ago, the airline’s new Premium Economy has been a few years in the making. Today we were invited to see the grand official reveal of SWISS’ latest product in an arsenal of improvements over the past few years.

Swiss b777 economy