JFK-London City on Swiss? Not so much, it seems

Back in June a press release announced, among other things, Swiss launching service between London City Airport and New York City. That raised all sorts of excitement as well as plenty of questions. The Bombardier CSeries can operate the route and even performed a proving flight earlier in the year. Alas, it is not going to happen.

During the Bombardier AeroPerspectives event (a/k/a media day briefing) this week at the company headquarters in Mirabel, Quebec, one of the presentations was from Sven Thaler, the Deputy Fleet Chief for Swiss’ Bombardier CSeries operations. Thaler highlighted many of the benefits the carrier has seen since the introduction of the type, mostly replacing Avros, and also talked about how the carrier is enjoying the benefits the larger, quieter planes bring to bear.

But he also crushed the hopes of anyone dreaming about competition on the JFK-LCY route:

We are not planning that route because it is not our product.

Thaler continued in that thought, explaining that the CSeries was for short-haul operations while the twin-aisle aircraft would serve long-haul. Not a huge surprise, of course, except the part where the announcement was made in the first place.

Read More: Competition coming to London City’s TATL ops?

It is slightly interesting that Swiss is keeping the CSeries so close to home given its range capabilities but it is not the only operator and some are willing to push the limits. Air Baltic is set to launch service between Riga and Abu Dhabi starting next month on the CS300. The 6 hour 15 minute flight will operate 4x weekly. The route includes a code-share with Etihad Airways but also was announced before Etihad scaled back its massive foreign investment plans. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.