Crossair

Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport (German: Crossair AG für europäischen Regionalluftverkehr) was a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland. It became Swiss International Air Lines after taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002.

History

Founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basel AG by Moritz Suter, it changed to Crossair on 18 November 1978, before the beginning of scheduled services on 2 July 1979 with flights from Zürich to Nuremberg, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt. It was headquartered at Zürich International Airport in Kloten in 1985.^[1]

The logo of the new Swiss International Air Lines.

It added charter services for major shareholder Swissair in November 1995. On 31 March 2002, Swissair passed out of existence as most of its assets were taken over by Crossair which then changed names to Swiss International Air Lines.

The SAirGroup logo.

A McDonalds tail on a Crossair MD-83 in a McDonalds livery to promote the restaurant.

Fleet

Crossair operated the following aircraft.

Aircraft	Total	Delivered	Retired	Notes
Piper L-4J	1	1975
Cessna 310P	1	1975
Cessna 421B	1	1976
Cessna 551	1	1977		First Jet Operated by Crossair
Fairchild Swearingen Metro II	3	1979		may have been used up to the late 80s or early 90s
Fairchild Swearingen Metro II	9	1980? (actual year unknown)		may have been used up to the late 80s or early 90s
SAAB 340	34	1984	2002	flew mainly from Basel as well as Lugano and Zürich replaced by Embraer ERJ 145
Fokker 50	5	1990	1995
Fokker F27	3	1984	1984
BAe 146	3	1990	1994
Avro RJ 85	4	1993	2002	named Kärpf, Piz Julier, Montchaibeux, Lindenberg
Avro RJ 100	16	1995	2002	all were named.One written off
Saab 2000	32	1994	2002	all were stored or sold, though what happened to one is not known was world's largest operator of the type in 2000 flown mainly from Basel as well as Lugano and Zürich replaced by Embraer ERJ 145
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	12	1979	2004	some were named, all were sold, though what happened to one is not known mostly used on larger routes from Zurich, and some from Basel
Embraer ERJ 145 LU	25	2000	2005? (actual year unknown)	all were named or sold used on routes from all three hubs replaced SAAB aircraft
Embraer ERJ 145 LR	1	2002		named Gemsstock used on routes from all three hubs replaced SAAB aircraft

Swissair leased an MD-11 to Crossair for the Zurich-Palma De Mallorca route.

Destinations

Crossair flew from Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lugano and Zurich. Crossair was very interested in serving from several hubs and, therefore set up a multi-hub business plan. Crossair set up a Eurocross scheme from their Basel base which was set up to help them serve smaller airports and transfer their passengers to larger hubs with short transit times (only around 20 minutes) This helped Crossair link with their partners, such as Swissair from Zurich. Crossair also operated flights between Swiss airports.

Incidents and accidents

On 10 January 2000, Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off in Zürich. All 10 people aboard were killed.
On 24 November 2001, Crossair Flight 3597 crashed near Zürich, killing 24 of 33 people aboard, including the famous La Bouche singer Melanie Thornton and 2 of the 3 girls from German eurodance group Passion Fruit. One survived along with 8 other passengers, and suffered minor injuries and 3rd degree burns.
On 10 July 2002, Crossair Flight 850 made an emergency landing at Werneuchen Airfield, Germany. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair when it hit an earth bank placed across the runway, the markings of which did not conform to standards.

Head office

The current Swiss International Air Lines head office at EuroAirport was once the head office of Crossair

Crossair was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.^[2] In 2002 the name "Crossair" was replaced with "Swiss International Air Lines" on the head office building.^[3]

References

↑ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 30 March 1985. 71." Retrieved on 17 June 2009.
↑ "Location." Crossair. Retrieved on 13 June 2009.
↑ "INDUSTRY BRIEFS." Airline Industry Information. 2 July 2002. Retrieved on 12 January 2010. "According to a company statement, the new name replaces Crossair at the corporate headquarters in Basel."

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crossair.

Crossair Website - crossair.com (Archive)
Crossair Website - crossair.ch (Archive) (German)
Crossair Website - crossair.ch (Archive)