Swiss International Air Lines

From Free net encyclopedia

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 International Air Lines uses the IATA Code LX, which it inherited from Crossair (Swissair's code was SR).

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 Flight Simulator
5 Gallery
6 See also
7 External links

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History

The airline was formed before the 2001 bankruptcy of Swissair, Switzerland's former flag carrier. The failed airline's biggest creditors, Credit Suisse and UBS, arranged to sell Swissair's assets to Crossair, the regional counterpart to the transatlantic Swissair (both Swissair and Crossair were under the same holding company, called SRGroup). Crossair then changed its name to Swiss, and the new national airline started its operations on March 31, 2002. The airline is 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.

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After almost a year of disputes, Swiss was finally accepted in 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.

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 is expected to be completed by 2007 and will see the Swiss operations gradually integrated with Lufthansa 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.

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The airline has applied to set up a regional airline subsidiary called Swiss European Air Lines. This will have its own air operator's certificate, thus allowing Swiss International to overcome current disagreements with its pilots on labour issues (ref: Airliner World, November 2005).

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Destinations

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Fleet

At 2005:

By the 2006 summer timetable, Swiss plans to phase out the Embraer ERJ 145 and extend its Avro fleet.

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Flight Simulator

Swiss Virtual Air Lines. This project provide fans with a reproduction of the flight schedule of Swiss on flight simulators. The game attracts hundreds of players, many are SWISS Pilots.

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