Swissair

Infobox Airline
airline = Swissair

---

logo_size = 175
destinations = 157
headquarters = Kloten, Switzerland
IATA = SR
ICAO = SWR
callsign = SWISSAIR
founded = 1931
ceased = March 31, 2002
key_people = Mario Corti, CEO
hubs = Flughafen Zürich
Geneva Cointrin
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer = Qualiflyer
lounge = Swissair Lounge
alliance = Qualiflyer
parent = SAirGroup
fleet_size = 77 at bankruptcy
website = [http://web.archive.org/web/20030422220245/http://www.swissair.com www.swissair.com]

Swissair (Swiss Air Transport Company Limited) was the former national airline of Switzerland. It was formed of a merger between Balair and Ad Astra Aero ("To the Stars"), in 1931. [cite web | author= | title=About Swissair Facts and Figures: | url=http://www.swissair.com/aboutus/swissair/facts.htm| archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/19990219220801/www.swissair.com/aboutus/swissair/facts.htm | publisher=Swissair | date=1999 |archivedate=1999-02-19 | accessdate=2008-08-30] For most of its 71 years, Swissair was one of the major international airlines and known as the "Flying Bank" due to the financial stability of the airline, causing it be regarded as a Swiss national symbol and icon.

Nearly 30 percent of Swissair stock was owned by the Swiss government, and at the demise of the airline, Swissair belonged to the holding company SAirGroup, the regional airline Crossair, and the charter company Balair. Its major hubs until the early 1990s were at Zürich International Airport and Geneva Cointrin International Airport. Its successor, Swiss International Air Lines, is using the old Crossair sign LX and the ICAO code SWR.

History

Hunter Strategy

In the 1990s Swissair initiated the Hunter Strategy, a major expansion program devised by the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. Using this strategy, Swissair aimed to grow its market share through the acquisition of small airlines rather than entering into alliances agreements. Swissair was advised to acquire 49.5 percent of the unprofitable Belgian flag carrier, Sabena, and significant stakes in the carriers Air Liberté, AOM, Air Littoral, Volare, LOT, Air Europe, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, South African Airways, Portugalia and LTU.

The buying spree created a major cash flow crisis for parent company SAirGroup, and was exacerbated by the environment caused by the September 11 attacks. Unable to make payments to creditors on its mountain of debt, and the refusal of UBS AG to extend its line of credit on October 2, 2001 the entire Swissair fleet was abruptly grounded. [cite news | author=Staff writers | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1574658.stm | title=Swissair grounds all flights | work=BBC News | date=2001-10-02 | accessdate=2007-08-02] Many blamed the UBS for the fiasco causing demonstrators to take to the streets with signs referring to UBS chairman, Marcel Ospel as "Bin Ospel" and redefining the bank's acronym, "UBS" as the "United Bandits of Switzerland".

Two large bridge loans from the Swiss government were required to then finance continuation of flight operations. This notwithstanding, with the resumption of flight service, it was necessary for flight deck crew to carry large sums of cash for fuel purchases at foreign airports. After the acquisition of assets by Crossair, and liquidation firm, Jürg Hoss Liquidators, on March 31 2002, Crossair was renamed Swiss International Air Lines, and Swissair officially ceased to exist.

Factors behind collapse

Like other airlines, Swissair's operations and profitability were disrupted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. As Swissair's directors included many politicians, commentators have pointed to potential conflicts of interest as fundamental to the demise of Swissair. The judiciary is continuing to examine why Swissair acquired counselling that supported the Hunter Strategy, and why Swissair continued to make certain payments despite nearing insolvency. Questions have also been raised about federal aid given to Swissair and the politicians involved. The highly competitive nature of the market during the business's final years also precipitated its demise: like rival company Sabena, Swissair fell victim to the competition of "budget airlines" such as Ryanair and easyJet. [cite book |title=Business Studies | edition=Third edition |first=Dave | last=Hall | coauthors=Jones, Rob; Raffo, Carlo | year=2004 | publisher=Causeway Press |location=Ormskirk | isbn=1902796837 | pages=p 196 ]

Management trial

The criminal trial began January 16, 2007 in Bülach. The entire Swissair management board stood facing criminal charges of mismanagement, false statements, and forgery of documents. Top defendants in the trial were Mario Corti, Philippe Bruggisser, George Schorderet, Jacqualyn Fouse, Eric Honegger and Vrena Spoerry. Corti, Honegger and Spoerry entered statements proclaiming their innocence. [cite news| url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/16/business/EU-FIN-Switzerland-Swissair-Trial.php | title=Swissair executives assert innocence at first day of Switzerland's biggest corporate trial | work= International Herald Tribune | author=Harry Rosenbaum | date=15 Jan 2007 | accessdate=2007-02-22]

On June 7, 2007 the court in Bülach cleared the defendants of all criminal charges over the airline's 2001 bankruptcy. [cite news | author=Staff writers | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6729261.stm | title=All Swissair defendants cleared | work=BBC News | date= 2007-06-07 | accessdate= 2007-08-02]

Fleet

Before its collapse, Swissair operated the following aircraft. [cite web | author=Patrick Eberhard | title=The whole Swissair fleet | url=http://www.sr692.com/ | work=Swissair.aero | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-09-02]

wissair Asia

Swissair Asia was formed in 1995 to allow for the company to fly to Taiwan while still maintaining flights in the People's Republic of China. [cite web | author= | title=Swissair Asia | url=http://www.airigami.net/en/europe/sui/set_0127.htm | publisher=Airigami.net | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-09-02] Aircraft formerly used by Swissair Asia had the Chinese character Ruì (瑞), from the Chinese translation of Switzerland, Ruìshì (瑞士,means Switzerland), on the tail fin instead of the cross. [cite web | author=Mika B Virolainen | title=Picture of the Swissair Asia McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft | url=http://www.airliners.net/photo/Swissair-Asia/McDonnell-Douglas-MD-11/1225283/M/ | work=Airliners.net | date=17 May 1997 | accessdate=2008-09-02] [cite web | author=B. Amratisha | title=Picture of the Swiss International Air Lines Asia McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft | url=http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0907203/M/ | work=Airliners.net | date=23 2August 003 | accessdate=2008-09-02]

Swissair legacy

Crossair restarted the company in 2001 and the successor airlines "Swiss International Air Lines" and "Swiss European Air Lines" were born. These two airlines are divisions of "Swiss", the parent company. Swiss merged into the Lufthansa Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the flag carrier of Germany.

With the merger with Lufthansa, Swiss joined the Star Alliance as Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance. The two airlines operate their flights on behalf of each other, making up something similar to a joint flag carrier of Germany and Switzerland.

At one point, it appeared that Swiss was going to become a member of the Oneworld alliance. It had codeshares with Oneworld carriers British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Aer Lingus and Finnair, and held a strategic partnership and joint operation for all service to North America and AA-operated flights beyond U.S. gateways using American Airlines. Swiss started to terminate these codeshare agreements, but did not terminate the AA alliance. A theory emerged that Swiss was planning to use its partnerships, the AA alliance, and its partnership with British Airways, a strong supportive member of Oneworld, to join Oneworld itself. Swiss took a sudden turn in 2005 with its alliance with Lufthansa, and continued into the Star Alliance network. Throughout this the American Airlines alliance remained, but did not expand. Swiss then created an alliance with Star Alliance member United Airlines and replaced some of the American Airlines codeshare destinations from Dallas and JFK, AA's hubs with United codeshare service out of O'Hare (the only place where "American Airlines" and "United" share a hub) and Washington Dulles International Airport. Therefore, the American Airlines alliance was weakened.

Swiss recycled the Swissair fleet and refurbished the liveries to turn it into the new Swiss fleet. Swiss has since retired all of its Boeing and McDonnell Douglas fleet and operates all Airbus models from the A319 to the A340 aircraft. Swiss retired its Saab 2000 and Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft, and operates the British Aerospace Avro Aerospace RJ-85 and 100 aircraft. Swiss's frequent flyer club, Swiss TravelClub became part of Miles & More, which was originally the Lufthansa frequent flyer club. It acts as both airlines' frequent flyer program.

Accidents and incidents

Over the 71 year history of Swissair, there were sixteen major incidents reported resulting in 390 fatalities. [cite web | author= | title=ASN Aviation Safety Database | url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?sorteer=datekey_desc&kind=%&cat=%&page=1&field=Operatorkey&var=5224 | publisher=The Aviation Safety Network | date=2008-08-31 | accessdate=2008-09-02]

ee also

* "Grounding (film)"

References

External links

*
* [http://www.crossair.org www.crossair.org]
* [http://www.qualiflyer.org www.qualiflyer.org]
* [http://www.swissair.aero Swissair.aero fansite]
* [http://www.swissair-grounding.net Private site focusing on Swissair's Grounding] de icon
* [http://www.airliners.net/articles/read.main?id=19 Airliners.net article: Swissair, Gone with the Wind...]
* [http://www.geocities.com/swissair_man Swissair and Swiss Fan Site]
* [http://www.simairline.net/swissair/destinations.html Swissair Virtual, listing Swissair destinations]
* " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1577609.stm Thousands stranded in airline crisis] ," "BBC"
* Nolmans, Erik (Nov. 14, 2005). "UBS Fastens its Seatbelts". "FORTUNE", p. 20.