Commercial airlines focus on their aircraft’s interior design for two main reasons. On one hand, they aim to maximize the limited seating space in economy class by fitting in more seats, often resulting in less comfort for passengers. Conversely, in business or premium class, the goal is also to maximize space, but in a different manner. It seems that one company has gone too far.
Seats beyond its means. Swiss, Switzerland’s most famous airline, is being forced to make modifications to some of its aircraft. The reason? As it turns out, the new first class seats the company is installing, as part of a renovation that had been on hold for several years, are too heavy and exceeding the aircraft’s capacity.
The affected planes. According to Business Insider, Swiss is installing the new seats, which include 6.5-foot walls and lockable doors for each suite, in its Airbus A330s. However, they’re located at the front of the aircraft, which makes the nose of the aircraft significantly heavier. As a solution, the airline will need to place a large “balancing plate” at the rear of the aircraft to center the plane.
It's all about luxury. The airline announced the new seats, named “Swiss Senses,” in 2023 and will debut them in the winter of 2025-2026. According to the company, customers purchasing these seats will enjoy a full Switzerland experience. The first class seats will feature “suites” of up to 34 square feet with sliding doors and walls that provide privacy from other passengers.
The word of Swiss. In response to the detected issue, the company explained in a statement that industry trends are leading to heavier first class and business class seats for increased privacy, while economy class seats are becoming lighter. “These contrasting trends are changing the center of gravity of the aircraft in which such seats are installed,” the airline said.
Additionally, Swiss clarified that aircraft that are already nose-heavy are particularly impacted, and this includes the A330. The airline plans to retrofit Boeing 777s with the new seats, without encountering the same issue. However, it won’t equip its Airbus A340s with the new seats.
What is a “balancing plate”? This solution will allow passengers with premium tickets to enjoy larger seats while correcting the aircraft’s center of gravity. As it turns out, the plates will be installed and used to accurately measure the weight of the new cabin interiors. As such, they’ll “remain aboard these aircraft until other options can be developed,” a Swiss spokesperson said, adding that the airline plans to explore technology that can replace the plates.
Where will the plate be located? Swiss has explained that the balance plate will be positioned at the rear of the aircraft and won’t be visible to economy class passengers. As mentioned earlier, the airline can’t confirm the weight of the plate until the final seat volume is determined.
An accumulation of circumstances. The lingering question is how a commercial airline could overlook the weight implications of new seats. Swiss, voted the best European airline for first class in 2024, stated that the decision to upgrade the cabin interiors was driven by customer feedback: “[Customers told the airline] in no uncertain terms that it is time we modernized the cabin interiors of our long-haul aircraft, and especially our Airbus A330-300s.”
The airline spokesperson explained that although the company had considered adding more seats in economy class to add weight to the back of the aircraft, it finally rejected this idea to maintain comfort for passengers. In any case, Swiss denies that this decision was a “planning error” and stated that it used “rough estimates” of the weight when designing the cabin, which have now increased as manufacturing begins. The exact weight of the new seats will be confirmed once they’re installed.
On a related note, the weight of the seats in Swiss first class was no less than 452 pounds. This gives us an indication of the weight of the new seats that are causing the airline to rebalance its fleet of Airbus A330s.
Image | Oliver Holzbauer (via Flickr)
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