Swissair

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Swissair
IATA SR	ICAO SWR	Callsign Swissair
Founded		1931
Hubs		Zurich Airport Geneva Cointrin International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Qualiflyer
Member lounge		Swissair Lounge
Alliance		Qualiflyer (now defunct)
Fleet size		at time of bankruptcy: N/A
Destinations		At time of bankruptcy: 157
Headquarters		Zurich, Switzerland
Key people		CEO at time of bankruptcy: Mario Corti
Website: http://www.swissair.com

Swissair, short for "Swiss Air Transport Company Limited," was Switzerland's national airline for 71 years (1931–2002), established when the airlines Balair and Ad Astra Aero ("To the Stars") merged. For most of its lifetime, Swissair's financial stability made it renowned as a "flying bank" and it came to be regarded as a national symbol. It ended, however, in fiasco. About 30% of the Swissair shares belonged to the national government and at its demise, Swissair belonged to the holding company SAirGroup, together with the regional airline Crossair and the charter company Balair. Its major hubs were at Zürich International Airport and Geneva Cointrin International Airport (until the early 1990s).

Contents 1 Designator code 2 What Became of Swissair? 3 History 3.1 The 1990s "Hunter Strategy" and Swissair's collapse 3.2 Factors behind Swissair's collapse 4 History of accidents and incidents 5 Trivia 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Designator code

Swissair used the IATA designator code SR and the ICAO designator code SWR. Its successor Swiss International Air Lines is using the old Crossair sign LX and the ICAO code SWR.

[edit] What Became of Swissair?

Crossair restarted the company in 2001 and successor airline Swiss International Air Lines and Swiss European Air Lines was born. These two airlines are simply two "subdivisions" of SWISS, the company. The mother company is Swiss International Air Lines Group. Recently, 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 because Lufthansa was a member of the Star Alliance. The two airlines hold an alliance operating all flights on behalf of each other, sort of making the flag carrier of Germany and Switzerland, or "SwissGer". It appeared that SWISS was going to become a member of the Oneworld alliance. It had codeshares with Oneworld carriers British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Aer Lingus and Finnair, and held an alliance with 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. This partnership kept growing. 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 and then went with Lufthansa, and continued into the Star Alliance network. Throughout this the American Airlines alliance continued to remain, but not expand. SWISS then created an alliance with Star Allliance 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 alliance was weakened. American Airlines and SWISS both plan to terminate all codeshare service including their alliance agreement altogether. Most routes out of O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, American's hub, are currently operated by United, which also uses O'Hare for a hub. Therefore, the American Alliance will be terminated little-by-little, and with every inch the AA alliance weakens, the United alliances gains the same amount. It is likely that before 2007 is over United will have taken over the American-SWISS alliance and be just as strong. SWISS is now content and thriving as a happy member of the Star Alliance. SWISS recycled the Swissair fleet and refurbished the liveries and turned it into the new and current SWISS fleet. At this time, SWISS has retired all of its Boeing and McDonell 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.

[edit] History

[edit] The 1990s "Hunter Strategy" and Swissair's collapse

In the 1990s Swissair initiated a large expansion program known as the "Hunter Strategy" in which it aimed to grow by buying small airlines rather than forming alliances. It acquired 49½ % of Sabena, the Belgian national airline and bought important stakes in several minor airlines like Air Liberté, AOM, Air Littoral,Volare, LOT, Air Europe, TAP Portugal,Turkish Airlines, South African Airways, Portugalia and German holiday carrier LTU.

The financing of the Hunter Strategy, however, proved too costly and coupled with increasing losses in their investments, Swissair parent SAirGroup faced a cashflow crisis due to the slump in demand following the terror attacks in the USA at 9/11. On October 2, 2001, Swissair's fleet was grounded^[1]. The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS AG, was blamed by many for refusing to extend Swissair's line of credit, and protestors who demonstrated the day after the grounding carried banners reading "Bin Ospel" or "UBS = United Bandits of Switzerland".

Two large bridge loans from the Swiss Federation were needed to finance the continuation of flight operations. When flights resumed, captains had to carry large sums of cash in order to provide collateral for fuel purchases at foreign airports. Finally, on March 31, 2002, Crossair took over most of Swissair's assets, Swissair passed out of existence and Crossair was renamed Swiss International Air Lines. It is now usually known simply as "SWISS".

[edit] Factors behind Swissair's collapse

Like other airlines, Swissair's operations and profitability were disrupted in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States. However, as Swissair's directors included many politicians, commentators have pointed to potential conflicts of interest as fundamental to Swissair's demise. The judiciary is continuing to examine why Swissair bought 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.

[edit] History of accidents and incidents

June 19, 1954	A Convair CV-240 ditches due to fuel starvation in the English Channel, near Folkestone. All three crew members survive, but three of the five passengers die as they are unable to swim. Passenger aircraft at this time were not obliged to carry life-rafts or life-jackets, and this was one of the many incidents which inspired this obligation to be passed as law.
July 15, 1956	A Convair CV-440 crashes during a delivery flight from San Diego, California to Zürich via New York, Gander and Shannon. On approach to Shannon, the pilots execute an abnormally-steep turn, causing the aircraft to stall and drop to the ground. Four crew members die.
June 18, 1957	A Douglas DC-3 crashes during a flight exercise conducted under visual flight rules with nine people aboard. All die. The aim of the exercise was to practise flying with one engine switched off and propellers feathered.
September 4, 1963	Without authorisation, the pilot of a Swissair Sud Aviation Caravelle carrying seventy-four passengers and six crew taxis halfway along a runway at Zürich Airport in order to inspect and clear fog. He then returns to the start of the runway and takes-off. Ten minutes later the aircraft crashes, killing all on board. During its initial ascent, witness state they saw smoke issuing from one of its engines. Subsequent investigation establishes that braking during the pilot's unauthorised manoeveur overheated a tyre, causing it to burst, damage a fuel line and start the fire that ultimately led to loss of aircraft control.
February 10, 1967	A Convair CV-440 collides with a cloud-covered mountain; four crew members die.
February 21, 1970	A bomb on board a Convair CV-990 destroys the aircraft nine minutes after take-off from Zürich to Tel Aviv. Forty-seven die.
September 6, 1970	Three empty hijacked jet airliners, one belonging to Swissair, are blown up by terrorists at Dawson's Field, Zerqa, Jordan. See Dawson's Field hijackings.
October 8, 1979	A McDonnell Douglas DC-8 lands under "adverse conditions" at Athens International Airport, overshooting its runway and killing fourteen passengers. The plane touches down at too great a speed and too far along the runway for the pilots to use sufficient braking and reverse thrust.
September 2, 1998	A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 travelling from New York's JFK International Airport to Geneva crashes due to fire and subsequent instrument failure at night over the Atlantic Ocean, fifty miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. All 215 passengers and 14 crew members die. See Swissair Flight 111.

[edit] Trivia

Through a twist of fate the name of the demised airline will continue: The Swiss astronomer Paul Wild named an asteroid which he discovered in 1968 2138 Swissair.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ As a consequence "grounded" entered the Swiss-German lexicon, and the film Grounding was released in 2006.

[edit] References

• Aviation Safety Network
• Nolmans, Erik (Nov. 14, 2005). "UBS Fastens its Seatbelts". FORTUNE, p. 20.

[edit] See also

• List of notable business failures

[edit] External links

• Swissair Fansite
• Private site focusing on Swissair's Grounding (in German)
• Swissair and SWISS Fan Site