Welcome home, JBA!
On July the first, HB-JBA arrived at Zurich airport. It is the first Bombardier CS100 for SWISS International Air Lines. A member of our team got invited by Zurich Airport and SWISS to spot the arrival from a special place! See what he experienced:
It was a very special surprise as I got notified that I can join a group of photographers to catch the arrival of the first SWISS CS100 at Zurich airport, together with people of the Flughafen Zürich AG and SWISS International Air Lines! On a photo competition I won one of the rare places.
On the 1st of July, our small group of four photographers and the employees could finally go to the photography location, on the top of the old fire department tower on top of the fire department buildings, opposite of the observation deck, where we were able to spot the festive arrival! After a short break, we saw the landing lights of HB-JBA, which was the very first Bombardier CS100 in commercial line service! The plane did a low pass on approximately 100 meters before it turned away to the east. Also, a helicopter of the Alpine Air Ambulance accompanied the CSeries, equipped with a camera to create more fantastic photos!
On the second approach of JBA and the helicopter, suddenly two more lights appeared. Those lights were from the legendary Breitling Super Constellation, which performed her low pass, side by side to the CS100! After the second low pass with the Super Constellation, the Bombardier did land on runway 16 and taxied gently to the exit in front of the observation deck, where it got a water salute. The aircraft got welcomed by a lot of people, and with a banner and the sentence "Welcome to the family C-Series!" employees of SWISS International Air Lines also welcomed the new plane directly to her fleet!
After the festive arrival, we could do an exclusive tour around the crisp aircraft! The engines of the CS100 make a very good shape! With a 9: 1 shell current ratio (just 1 of 9 pieces air are passing the combustion chamber) the aircraft is very quiet! The rest of the machine shows up with new design too. Especially at Zurich airport, the hub for Airbus, the Bombardier CS100 will be a welcomed diversity! After our short trip around we were able to have a way more exclusive look into the new airplane. This was not planned, and so we were even more excited about it! Because the new cabin layout was a big secret until that date, we were not able to take pictures of the cabin or the cockpit. But this will give a good reason to fly the CS100 soon! "