Swiss (LX, Zurich) has announced it will double its A350-900 fleet plan and operate ten units of the type by 2031. The first of the ten is still scheduled to arrive by June 2025.

The airline said that the five additional aircraft will come from the existing order book of parent Lufthansa Group.

While Swiss has five A350-900s on a direct firm order, Lufthansa Group has a further 26 unfilled orders for the type (alongside ten orders for A350-1000s). Lufthansa already operates twenty-eight A350-900s. The German holding usually places orders on the group level and allocates the airframes to individual airlines at a later stage, based on current demand.

All ten A350-900s will be delivered to Swiss by 2031.

The airline's current widebody fleet comprises four A340-300s, fourteen A330-300s, and twelve B777-300(ER)s. The A350s will, in the first order, replace the A340s. Swiss did not comment on whether the incremental five A350s will be for growth or replacement. The airline recently mooted an all-A350 fleet in the long-term, with A350-1000s touted as a replacement for the B777s.

Swiss told ch-aviation it had not yet decided if the incremental A350-900s would be for replacement of any of the older-generation aircraft or for growth.