Swiss International Air Lines

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Swiss International Air Lines (short: Swiss) is the principal airline of Switzerland operating scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Its main hub is Zurich Kloten Airport (ZRH). Swiss is a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa.

The airline uses the IATA Code LX, which it inherited from the Swiss regional airline Crossair (Swissair's code was SR). The ICAO code is SWR, inherited from Swissair (Crossair's was CRX), in order to keep international traffic rights.

Troubled Beginnings

The airline was formed after the 2001 bankruptcy of Swissair, Switzerland's former flag carrier. In fact, their losses totaled $1.6 billion from its startup until 2005. The failed airline's biggest creditors, Credit Suisse and UBS, arranged to sell part of Swissair's assets to Crossair, the regional counterpart to the transatlantic Swissair (both Swissair and Crossair were under the same holding company, called SAirGroup). Crossair later changed its name to Swiss, and the new national airline started its operations officially on March 31, 2002. The airline was first owned by institutional investors (61.3%), Swiss Confederation (20.3%), cantons and communities (12.2%) and others (6.2%). Swiss also owns subsidiary companies Swiss Sun (100%) and Crossair Europe (99.9%). Employees total 5970.

Swiss International Air Lines, or "Swiss" was founded from the remains of Crossair. Unfortunately, the name change did not help. Crossair, which had for 40% of its income come from the defunct Swissair, and was cut out for becoming and intercontinental airline thanks to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The first year was plagued with loss and the Swiss government gave the airline the then-equivilent of $1.5 billion, which was used up within two years.

According to Marcel Biedermann, the managing director intercontinental markets for Swiss, said there were three possibilities: stay independent as a niche carrier, shrink to an unrecognizable level, or attach onto another airline group. The last choice was taken. Swiss talked to Air France-KLM, British Airways, and Lufthansa. However, Swiss was tied up with debt and an uncertain future, and semmed to be an unattractive investment. After merging with KLM, Air France said they were too busy to deal with Swiss joining them. Lufthansa wanted to take over, but the Swiss people did not want that. British Airways was open, and Oneworld partners thought Zürich Airport would be a viable alternative hub for London Heathrow. After almost a year of disputes, Swiss was finally accepted into the Oneworld airline alliance, after having been blocked by British Airways, with which Swiss competes on many long-haul routes. On June 3, 2004, Swiss announced its decision not to join Oneworld because they did not want to integrate their current frequent flyer program into British Airways' Executive Club. Furthermore, Swiss thought the relationship was one sided, where British Airways sapped out the benefits of the airline, but they would get no return.

Bouncing Back

By 2005, Swiss was half its 2002 size, and coming back. The airline annually halved their losses, and in 2006, received a net profit of $220 million. Biedermann stated in the March 2008 edition of "Airways", that "this was the beginning of getting our house back in order." He said that help was needed and looked up to Lufthansa as a comparison, so their coming together was natural, even with their differences. Even with the smaller network, Swiss carries the same number of passengers as they did in 2002.

On 22 March 2005 Lufthansa confirmed its plan to take over Swiss, starting with a minority stake (11%) of a new company set up to hold Swiss shares called Air Trust. The takeover was completed on the 1st of July 2007 and the Swiss operations were gradually integrated with Lufthansa's from late 2005. Swiss joined Star Alliance on 1 April 2006, when it also became a member of Lufthansa's Miles & More frequent flyer program.

The airline has set up a regional airline subsidiary called Swiss European Air Lines. This carrier has its own air operator's certificate and operates a non-Airbus fleet. The two independently operating divisions Swiss AviationTraining and Swiss WorldCargo (belly capacity of passenger planes) are also owned by Swiss.

The effects of Lufthansa

Following Lufthansa's take over, the regional fleet was changed from Crossair's EMBRAER ERJ's and SAAB's to Avro RJ's (aka BAe 146), which are flown by wholly-ownedsubsidiary, Swiss European Air Lines.

The airline reconstruction also caused Swiss to renegotiate their supplier contracts, which include ground handling, maintainance, food service, and labor.

Even though the public did not uproar about Luftansa's takeover, people thought the airline was given away. The shareholders of Swiss will get an out-performance option for their shares. Payment will be in 2008, and will rely on how well Lufthansa's shares compare with competitors' shares. Nonetheless, Lufthansa still wants to keep Swiss a separate brand.

Destinations

New routes and added frequencies

Zürich - Shanghai - Will be a daily service operated by airbus A340 aircraft, the service will be temporarily routed via Beijing for Olympics in 2008 from 28 July to 28 August.

The airline announced a major expansion at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in an attempt to win back market share from budget airlines using the airport. On January 14, 2007 services were launched to Barcelona, Budapest, Manchester, Nice, Prague and Warsaw, in addition to existing services to Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Zurich.

On September 19, 2007 SWISS announced a further expansion of its network with the following routes and destinations:

Zürich - Berlin - increasing from 3 to 4 daily rotations (begins October 28, 2007)
Zürich - Florence - Will be 3 daily services operated by Swiss European Airlines with RJ100 aircraft (begins March 2008)
Zürich - Sofia - Will be a daily service operated by Airbus 320 aircraft (begins March 2008)
Zürich - Saint Petersburg - Will be a daily service operated by Airbus A320 aircraft (begins March 2008)
Geneva - Manchester - Will be a weekly service (begins December 16, 2007)
Geneva - Bucharest - Will be 3 weekly services (begins March 2008)

Codeshare agreements

Aside from codeshares with Star Alliance partners, Swiss codeshares with the following carriers:

Adria Airways - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Ljubljana flights.
Air Canada - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Toronto flights. Connecting flights via Toronto/Montreal to Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa, Quebec.
Air France - Codeshare agreement on Geneva–Paris Charles de Gaulle flights.
Air One - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Napoli and Catania flights.
Air India - Codeshare agreement on Zurich-Mumbai & Zurich-Delhi flights. These code share flights are in benefit for Air India because it doest not serve Switzerland, so it is Swiss who transports passengers under an Air India ticket who with to fly to Zurich. In India Swiss International Airlines serves Delhi and Mumbai
All Nippon Airways - Codeshare agreement on SWISS Zurich–Tokyo flights.
Austrian Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Austria.
Blue1 - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Helsinki flights.
Brussels Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Belgium.
Cirrus Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Dresden and Zurich–Salzburg flights.
Croatia Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Zagreb flights.
Darwin Airline - Operates flights Zurich–Lugano on behalf of SWISS.
Egyptair - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Egypt.
El Al - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Tel Aviv and Geneva–Tel Aviv flights.
LOT Polish Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Poland.
Lufthansa - On several flights between Germany and Switzerland and on selected European and intercontinental connections.
PrivatAir - PrivatAir operates on behalf of Swiss on all flights between Zurich International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in an all-business class Boeing 737-BBJ 56-seat configuration.
Qatar Airways - Codeshare agreement on Zurich–Doha flights.
Scandinavian Airlines System - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Sweden, Denmark, Norway and selected beyond routes via Copenhagen gateway.
South African Airways - Codeshare agreement on connecting flights via Johannesburg to Cape Town, Durban and Windhoek.
Ukraine International Airlines - Codeshare agreement on Zurich-Kiev flights.
Spanair - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Spain.
TAP Portugal - Codeshare agreement on all routes between Switzerland and Portugal.
Thai Airways International - Codeshare agreement on all flights between Switzerland and Thailand.
United Airlines - Codeshare agreement on all flights between Switzerland and the US and on selected European and US connections.

Fleet

The Swiss International Air Lines fleet includes the following aircraft (as of November 2007):

Swiss International Air Lines Fleet
Aircraft	Total	Passengers (First/Business*/Economy)	Notes
Airbus A319-100	7	138
Airbus A320-200	19 (2 orders)	150 168	Deliveries: 2011
Airbus A321-100	6	200
Airbus A330-200	11	230 (48/182) 229 (42/187) 196 (12/42/142)	2 are ex-Lufthansa aircraft. The 2 oldest ones will be replaced with ex-Air Canada Airbus A340-300.
Airbus A330-300	(9 orders)		Replacing: Airbus A330-200 Entry into service: 2009 Deliveries: 2009-2011
Airbus A340-300	13 (2 orders)	228 (8/48/172) 282 (30/252) 291 (30/261)
Avro RJ100**	20	97 (40/57)

^{*Business Class offered on Airbus A330/A340 aircraft.} ^{** operated by Swiss European Air Lines Ltd.}

The average age of the Swiss International Air Lines fleet is 8 years (2006)
The aircraft fleet is to be renamed after local towns and cities over the next two years. The names will be featured on the aircraft fuselage, with cabin interiors showing the coat of arms of the town or city. The latest fleet addition, an Airbus A330, is the first to follow this scheme, as Berne.
Six Airbus A340 aircraft are to be added to the fleet. The first of which is an ex-Air Canada plane Three more ex-Air Canada A340s are to be added along with two ex-Austrian Airlines to increase frequencies on existing routes and to launch new routes for summer 2008.
Two Airbus A330 aircraft are also being added to the fleet. The first one will replace an Airbus A300-600 in November 2006 which was leased from Hapag-Lloyd, and the second in mid-December 2006, both to increase route frequencies.
The short haul fleet is also expected to expand with plans confirmed in September 2006 to add two Airbus A321 and one Airbus A320 aircraft. To avail the market chances, Swiss added 2 additional Airbus A320 aircraft to their fleet earlier than planned. The aircraft were added in autumn 2007 and were not new-build aircraft, but rather former Swissair aircraft that were leased out for six years.
On 20 September 2007, Lufthansa confirmed an order for 41 aircraft. Two of the ordered A320 and the 9 orders for A330 aircraft are intended for Swiss.

Some aircraft formerly used by Swiss have the Chinese character Ruì (瑞), from the Chinese translation of Switzerland, Ruìshì (瑞士), on the tail fin instead of the cross. They are from the former Swissair affiliate Swissair Asia, which was formed to allow for Swissair to serve the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China

Gallery

References

Donohue, Ken. "Swiss continues a proud tradition." Airways Magazine: A Global Review of Commercial Flight. March 2008: 22-23, 25, 28.

External links

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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 07:29:48 PDT (GMT -0700)
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