(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).
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
world 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
world 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.
]]
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).
See Also: Swiss International Air Lines destinations
At 2005:
The average age of the Swiss International Air Lines fleet is 6.6 years (at April 2006)
By the
2006 summer timetable, Swiss plans to phase out the
Embraer ERJ 145 and extend its
Avro fleet.
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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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/McDonnell_Douglas" class="copylinks">McDonnell Douglas MD-83 , now phased out
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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Airbus_A321" class="copylinks">Airbus A321
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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Airbus" class="copylinks">Airbus A340 at Zürich International Airport
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