by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 24, 2017 | 777, Contests, Featured, Swiss |
A few days remain to enter SWISS’ contest that will award the winner 2 Business Class tickets from the USA to Switzerland. Once in Switzerland, the winner will be spoiled with 3 nights at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz where Spa treatments will be the main focus. In addition, the winner will also receive a pair of First Class Swiss Rail passes valid for travel around Switzerland for 8 days.
The focus of the contest is to celebrate SWISS’ 777 service between the USA and Zurich. Currently they use the 777 from Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. Later this year Chicago will be added to this list.
To enter the contest, visit this link and complete the entry requirements. The contest ends on February 26 at midnight (US Eastern Time). The winner must complete travel by March 18, 2018. For all the fine print, click here.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 10, 2017 | Featured, Fleet Update, Jumbolino, Swiss |
SWISS has once again updated their expected retirement date for the Avro RJ100 or as we like to refer to as the ‘Jumbolino’. She’s known as the Jumbolino due to the 4 jet engines that are strapped to the wings of a small regional aircraft.
Per SWISS’ previous update, the target retirement date was set for August 26, 2017 however they have moved the date up to August 16. Currently there are 7 ‘Jumbolinos’ left in service and most will be phased out over the summer months leading up to the August 16 date. At their peak in the LX fleet, 25 Jumbolinos were darting around SWISS destinations throughout Europe.
The reason for the minor shift is due to SWISS finally getting all the C-Series jets from Bombardier after extended delivery delays. Five have been put into service and one remains to be delivered. These aircraft will help fill in the void created by the removal of the Jumbolinos.
So for those of you who have a soft spot for aircraft entering retirement, start paying attention to the LX timetable for mid August. I suspect there may be another tweak or 2 left to the schedule before its finalized, but SWISS will publish the final timetable well ahead of the retirement party.
H/T: FlyerTalk’s Oliver2002
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 1, 2017 | Featured, Swiss |
Earlier today, SWISS flight LX40 operating from Zurich to Los Angeles suffered an engine problem that required the shut down of the engine and an emergency diversion to a nearby airport. The aircraft flying to route was one of their newer 777 aircraft, tail number HB-JND.
The plane landed safely at Iqaluit Airport (YFB) after traveling nearly 3000 miles from Zurich. There is no immediate time frame for the continuation of the flight. The airport’s main runway was closed for nearly an hour after the aircraft arrived.
There actually was someone at the airport able to catch the emergency landing.
The following video is from Twitter user @Tattuinee who captured the moment the 777 landed.
Now being towed safely to the apron:
Iqaluit is in the Nunavut region of Canada near the entrance to Hudson Bay, and not far from Santa’s workshop in the North pole.
Santa’s Workshop is just a quick dog sled trip away…
A quick decision was made to divert. Graphic courtesy of FlightRadar24.com.
As luck would have it (for me at least), I have a friend who is on this flight so I expect hear all about his adventure in this remote outpost. If there’s anything interesting to share, I’ll follow up with another post.
UPDATE: Swiss has sent an aircraft from New York to pick up stranded passengers and take then onward to Los Angeles.
