Is the burden of flying first class worth it?
Swiss International Air Lines is being forced to rebalance its planes because their new first class seats are too heavy, CNN reports.
Switzerland's flag carrier Swiss was set to install new seats known as Swiss Senses as part of a revamp to improve the passenger experience, scheduled to begin in the winter of 2025–2026.
The jumbo seats feature six-foot-high walls and sliding locking doors for each 37-square-foot suite, offering passengers a completely made-in-Switzerland experience.
Because these seats are located at the front of the Airbus A330, the front of the plane becomes heavier. The airline must install a large “balancing plate” at the rear of the plane to balance it out.
Once the new interior upgrades are installed and weighed, the balance plates will be installed and “remain in these aircraft until other options are developed” as the airline explores potential replacement technology.
This plate will not be visible to economy class passengers.
The airline's current first-class seats weigh 452 pounds and the final weight of the new seats “won't be known until [they are] a spokesperson told CNN.
Industry trends show that first and business class seats are getting heavier to offer passengers more privacy, while economy seats are getting lighter, Swiss said in a statement, according to CNN, and “these two opposing trends are changing the center of gravity of the aircraft in which such seats are installed.”
Although first class refurbishment work is being carried out on Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft, only the Airbus A330 is facing this issue as it is already a heavier aircraft.
The spokesperson said the refurbishment work was carried out after customers told the airline that “it was time to modernise the cabin interiors of our long-haul aircraft, particularly the Airbus A330-300.”
Swiss has tested reducing weight from other aspects of the plane, including not adding sliding doors and reducing the first class cabin from eight seats to four. They have also considered adding more seats in economy to balance this out, but the airline rejected this idea to maintain passenger comfort.
The airline denied that it was a “planning error”, and said they had used a “rough estimate” of the weight, which would not be confirmed until full work on the aircraft was completed.
