Review: Swiss A220 Economy Class (LCY-ZRH)

In December 2023 I flew from London City to Zurich Airport in Swiss’ A220 economy class. This was my first time onboard an A220, and also my first time trying Swiss’ economy class product (at all, including intra-Europe). I booked this as part of a roundtrip itinerary to Hong Kong, which I mainly worked around trying both Swiss’ and Lufthansa’s premium economy products.

Here’s my review of Swiss’ A220 in economy class, where I’ll talk about the seat, as well as their “Saveurs” menu, which I pre-ordered.

Booking Swiss A220 Economy Class

I paid a cash (semi-flexible) roundtrip ticket between London and Hong Kong, which set me back £1,188 (HK$11,847). I considered this to be a fairly good deal, considering I was flying home so close to Christmastime. Swiss and Lufthansa generally seem to run their premium economy products on the lower end of market pricing.

My full itinerary read as follows:

19/12 LX465 London City – Zurich dep. 17:45 arr. 20:20 [Economy]
19/12 LX138 Zurich – Hong Kong dep. 22:40 arr. 17:40+1 [Premium Economy]
31/12 LH797 Hong Kong – Frankfurt dep. 23:45 arr. 06:50+1 [Premium Economy]
1/1 LH1520 Frankfurt – London Gatwick dep. 10:05 arr. 10:35 [Economy]

I credited my miles to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, where this premium economy segment from Zurich to Hong Kong earned me 5,767 miles.

While this didn’t apply to me (as I was connecting to a longhaul flight in premium economy, and those baggage requirements were upheld instead), it’s worth noting that Swiss’ cheapest fares do allow you to bring an 8kg carry-on bag in addition to a personal item. This wasn’t checked strictly onboard my flight.

Swiss Economy Ground Experience at London City Airport

My flight from London City was departing at 5:45 PM, and unfortunately I was running quite late from work, so only made it to the airport at 4:30 PM. There was a line to check in, both for our flight, and for a Lufthansa E190 flight leaving at around the same time.

Lufthansa/Swiss Check-In Counters at London City Airport

While London City is typically known for being extremely quick, unfortunately the newly installed scanners that allow you to keep liquids in your bag had malfunctioned on this day, and it was also very close to Christmas. This meant that it took around 25-30 minutes just to line up at security. Once I passed security, I made a beeline to gate 23, where my flight would be boarding.

Heading to Gate 23 at London City Airport

I found gate 23, and as I got there pre-boarding had just started.

Lining up to gate-check bags at London City Airport

This was my first time onboard an A220, and I was very excited! It was great to see our Swiss A220 parked right outside – while London City Airport doesn’t have jetbridges, planes are parked a very short walk from the airport terminal.

Swiss A220 at London City Airport

Boarding began at 5:20 PM for business class passengers and Miles & More frequent flyers, followed by the rest of the plane. Since I was seated at the back of the plane, I managed to be one of the first onboard.

Swiss Flight LX465
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Origin: London City (LCY) Gate: 23 Dep: 17:45 (17:50)
Destination: Zurich (ZRH) Gate: E19 Arr: 20:20 (20:15)
Duration: 1 hr 35 min (1 hr 25 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A220-100 Reg: HB-JBF
Seat: 26A (Economy Class)

Swiss A220 Economy Class Cabin and Seat

Boarding was done through both doors, and I was first onboard from the rear door. I was onboard one of Swiss’ shorter A220-100s, featuring 130 seats in a 2-3 configuration.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Cabin

Swiss’ A220s have quite sleek seats. You can only adjust the height of the headrest, and these seats are devoid of power ports whatsoever. However, I found the seats otherwise to be quite wide and comfortable, thanks to the fuselage of the A220.

As an A220, the prize position is to select one of the double seats on the left. Seat selection cost £12.20 (HK$128) on this 1-hour flight, and I typically wouldn’t bother, though I wanted to get a great vantage point during my first A220 flight.

Swiss A220 Economy Class “Double” Seats

While the seats on the right are less desirable, they’re still quite wide, and I’d still prefer this aircraft to flying an aircraft in the A320 or Boeing 737 family (there may still be good reason to choose them on a short flight, e.g. if you’re landing into London Heathrow).

Swiss A220 Economy Class Triple Seats

I’d selected seat 26A, the window seat in the last row of the cabin. Swiss’ A220 seats do recline, though rows 9 (before the exit row) and 26 don’t have the feature. I was content with this on this short flight – I like being in the last row of the cabin, so I can observe the service flow, and also not have anyone behind me.

Swiss A220 Economy Class View of Cabin from 26A

Seat pitch is 30″, and I found legroom to be quite good. While there isn’t a proper seat pocket at these seats (you’ll have to store a laptop in the overhead bin), there are two separate pockets to store a phone or a water bottle.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Legroom and Seat Pockets

The large and sturdy tray table folded out of the seat in front. I’d say that the table is just about too small to fit a 13″ laptop, though not much less so than most shorthaul economy class seats.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Tray Table

In addition, the A220s feature air nozzles, and there’s also an electronic panel as per usual for the A220 – it announces when the seatbelt sign is on, plays the safety video, and shows a notification whenever a PA announcement is occurring.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Overhead Console and Air Nozzles

While Swiss has announced a plan to start retrofitting their A220s with WiFi, unfortunately this still hasn’t started yet, over a year after they made the announcement. You’ve gotta love how quickly the Lufthansa group implements any of their service improvements.

Taking Off from London City Airport

Boarding was very quick, and was complete less than 15 minutes after it started, at around 5:35 PM. The only empty seat on the plane was the one next to mine – I offered the person in the middle seat across me whether they wanted to sit in the aisle, though they declined.

At this point, the captain came and welcomed us onboard. The safety video was screened through the overhead panels at 5:40 PM.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Safety Video (on Overhead Panels!!)

This was my first time flying out of City Airport, and despite the fact that the airport was the busiest I’ve ever seen it, we still had immediate clearance to take off. Throughout our taxi, we had great views of Canary Wharf and the rest of the city in the distance.

Views of the City of London from London City Airport

We pushed back at 5:50 PM and were wheels up from runway 27 around 5 minutes later. From the left side you could see bits of Greenwich and Canary Wharf, which was super cool – though soon it was time to bank right, so we could head eastbound towards Zurich.

Taking Off from London City Airport

The cabin lights were switched off for takeoff, and I love how sleek the A220 looks in low lighting.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Cabin during Takeoff

“Swiss Saveurs” Economy Class Meal Service

A few minutes after we took off, the cabin lights were adjusted as we prepared for the meal service.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Cabin Cabin before Meal Service

Swiss operates a buy-on-board meal service called “Swiss Saveurs”, which either can be pre-ordered on the “Manage Your Booking” part of their website, or ordered directly onboard. You can find the currently available menu here.

On my flight the menu read as follows:

Swiss Saveurs Menu

The drinks menu read as follows (apologies for the low lighting):

Swiss Saveurs Menu Drinks

If you’re not planning on ordering anything off the Swiss Saveurs menu, every passenger gets a free bottle of water, as well as a chocolate. This is marginally less than what you’d get on British Airways, though substantially less than what Air France and KLM currently offer in shorthaul economy class.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Water and Chocolate

I decide to go for something more. Specifically, I got the salmon poke bowl, which retailed for CHF 11.25 (£10.48/HK$110).

I saw a drink called El Tony Mate on the menu as well, which looked like an Argentinean carbonated tea beverage of sorts. Since it looked unique, I decided to purchase it as well, which set me back another CHF 4.5 (£4.19/HK$44). I actually found the drink to be delicious, even though £4 is quite steep for a canned beverage.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Swiss Saveurs Meal

The poke bowl was delicious – I found the salmon to be high quality, and the other condiments to be packed with flavour, including the buckwheat noodles provided. My only complaint would be the overuse of mayo.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Swiss Saveurs Meal – Salmon Poke Bowl

Swiss has quite a rudimentary offering for economy class passengers that aren’t purchasing anything, though I actually found the meal I ordered to be high-quality and delicious, and not too far off what I would pay for a similar meal on the ground. While economy class service intra-Europe is generally terrible nowadays, I think you can get substantially higher quality buy-on-board meals on full-service airlines compared to low-cost carriers for a similar price, which is worth noting since prices can typically run similar between the two.

Also, while I won’t dedicate a section to the crew serving us on this flight, everyone I interacted with was quite friendly.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Lavatory

While the lavatories as such are nothing special, the A220 lavatories are on the larger side, and also quite handsome, with nice lighting.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Lavatory

Landing into Zurich Airport

This was a short flight, and before we knew it it was time to land into Zurich Airport.

Swiss A220 Economy Class Cabin during Landing

Unfortunately I couldn’t capture great pictures as we landed into Zurich, though we landed at 8:10 PM and had a quick taxi to gate E19. We parked at 8:15 PM, around 5 minutes before our scheduled arrival time.

Landing into Zurich Airport

At this point I bid farewell to the crew, disembarked through the forward door, and made my way to my connecting flight, which would bring me home to Hong Kong in Swiss premium economy.

Conclusion: Swiss’ A220 Economy Class

The Lufthansa group (Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian) typically have quite weak base-level offerings for a full-service carrier – this Swiss flight only offered water and chocolate for free, and there was no WiFi or streaming entertainment whatsoever. However, the A220 was a joy to fly, and I found the experience to be very comfortable. I also found the buy-on-board selection to be quite high-quality, and not exorbitant in price.

If you need to bring a carry-on, Swiss might not actually be more expensive than easyJet or Ryanair with all fees factored in, and I’d say that they do offer a marginally better experience. I would give British Airways, Air France and KLM the edge over Swiss at the moment due to onboard WiFi and power ports, and Air France/KLM offer catering to all passengers on short flights. However, most of the time you’re only choosing between a couple of carriers even when flying intra-Europe, and in that case I wouldn’t hesitate to fly Swiss again.

Have you flown Swiss’ economy class intra-Europe before? How was your experience?