Swiss Airlines Forced to Rebalance Planes: Here's Why

Airplanes have to be perfectly balanced to fly, requiring airlines to meticulously calculate the weight of each object that they install onto their plane and find out how it will affect the overall balance of the aircraft. Swiss Airlines is now being forced to rebalance their A330s after the installation of new first and business class seats, which are heavier than the old versions.

Swiss Airlines announced the arrival of new premium seats in 2023, which would be named 'Swiss Senses.' They planned for the feature to launch sometime in late 2025 or early 2026, but that plan has hit a slowdown after the seats unbalanced the plane, making it nose-heavy. The new seats would include numerous comfort features, including wider seats, two-meter long lie-flat bed, and seat temperature control (heating and cooling), as well as several privacy features, like a six-foot-tall wall, sliding doors, and locks. They will come in a variety of soft colors, such as bordeaux (a deep red), anthracite (a dark gray), and beige. Swiss' current first-class seats weigh a staggering 452 pounds, and that number will only go up as premium features increase on larger airlines.

Because of the new imbalance in the plane, Swiss Airlines is being forced to add a large metal plate, which is estimated to be around 1.5 metric tons, in the back of each plane. However, the plate will not be added on every long-haul flight. Airbus' A330 is naturally nose-heavy, while Boeing's 777 is not. Because of this, while the seats will be added on both planes, the balancing plate will only be placed on A330s.

However, more weight also means that the plane will require more fuel to fly, setting the airline back on the path to achieve its goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Image courtesy of Swiss Airlines