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Federal Air Transport Service: New state aircraft landed in Switzerland

Swiss Government

Bern, 20.12.2024 -- The new state aircraft type Bombardier Global 7500 landed on 19th of December 2024 in Switzerland. In future, the Swiss Confederation will thus have a state aircraft with state of the art technology in terms of security, efficiency and performance. The first deployment of the Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft by the Federal Air Transport Service is planned early in 2025.

The Federal Air Transport Services operates the aircraft which are used by the federal government, departments, federal offices and the armed forces. In August 2023, the Federal Council resolved the procurement of a new state aircraft and assigned the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) the task of replacing the Cessna Citation Excel 560XL with a Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft.

The new state aircraft was handed over on 17th December 2024 by the manufacturer Bombardier in Montreal, Canada to representatives from Switzerland. Prior to the handover, the aircraft was checked by specialists from flight testing at the Federal Office for Defence Procurement armasuisse and the Air Force.

After successful acceptance, the aircraft was flown by a mixed pilot crew of the Air Force and armasuisse into Switzerland, where it landed on the Payerne military airfield after a flight of around seven hours on the evening of 19th December.

First deployment by Federal Air Transport Service planned early in 2025

The ground and cockpit staff will be trained from January 2025. The first deployment of the new state aircraft by the Federal Air Transport Service is planned early in 2025. Expectably during the first two years, the Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft will be based at the Payerne military airfield before it is stationed at the Bern-Belp airport near the Federal City of Bern. The Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft will also be used for long distance operations from Bern-Belp.

It is planned to install the self-protection system in summer and autumn 2025, which will reduce the risk in the event of threats by Man Portable Air Defence Systems (known as MANPADS). After successful testing, acceptance and approval of the self-protection system, the Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft will eventually be ready for full use at the end of 2025. It will have considerably greater range and autonomy than the previous state aircraft fleet.

The Federal Air Transport Service's previous aircraft will still be used until upgrading is completed. These are the Citation Excel 560XL (year of construction 2002) from Cessna and the Falcon 900EX (year of construction 2008) from Dassault. The Citation Excel 560XL will be replaced by the Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft in due course.