Swissair (stylised in all lowercase)"World Airline Directory." Flight International. 28 March-3 April 2000. . was the flag carrier of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
Swissair was formed from a merger between Belair and Ad Astra Aero. For most of its 71 years, it was one of the major international airlines and known as the "Flying Bank" due to its financial stability, causing it to be regarded as a Swiss national symbol and icon. It was headquartered at Zurich Airport in Kloten.
In 1997, the Swissair Group was renamed SAirGroup (although it was again renamed Swissair Group in 2001), with four subdivisions: SAirLines (to which Swissair, regional subsidiary Crossair, leisure subsidiary Balair, and leasing subsidiary FlightLease belonged), SAirServices, SAirLogistics, and SAirRelations.
Due to its so-called "Hunter Strategy" of expanding its market by acquiring smaller airlines, Swissair was suffering from over-expansion by the late 1990s. The crash of Swissair Flight 111 in September 1998 killed all 229 people on board and generated a costly lawsuit and negative publicity for the airline. After the economic downturn following the September 11 attacks, Swissair's assets dramatically lost value, grounding the already-troubled airline in October 2001.Hermann, A., & Rammal, H. G. (2010). The grounding of the "flying bank". Management Decision, 48(7), 1048–62. The Swiss federal government later revived and sustained the airline until 31 March 2002. The final Swissair flight landed in Zurich from São Paulo on 1 April 2002.
On 1 April 2002, a former regional subsidiary, Crossair, renamed itself Swiss International Air Lines and took over most of Swissair's routes, planes, and staff. Swiss International Air Lines was taken over by the German airline Lufthansa in 2005. Swissair's holding company SAirGroup AG, completed its liquidation proceedings, which lasted over two decades, in 2024.
History
Founding years
On 26 March 1931, Swissair – Schweizerische Luftverkehr AG (English: Swissair – Swiss Air Transport) was founded through the fusion of the airlines Ad Astra Aero (founded in 1919) and Balair (1925). Balz Zimmermann and the Swiss aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer were the founding fathers. In contrast to other airlines, it did not receive support from the government, which allowed it to operate independently and focus on building a strong brand identity without relying on state funding. The name "Swissair" was the proposal of Dr Alphonse Ehinger, president of the board of directors of Balair, although "Swissair" was first deemed "un-Swiss". In the first operational year, 64 people were employed, including ten pilots, seven radio operators, and eight mechanics.From Swiss precision to Swiss cheese Airliner World August 2022 pages 57-63 Their planes offered 85 seats, and operation was maintained only from March to October. The route network had a length of .
On 17 April 1932, Swissair bought two Lockheed Orions, making them the second European airline to use American planes after the Czechoslovak operator CSA purchased a Ford Trimotor in 1930. The Orion was the fastest commercial aeroplane of its time and was put to use on the "Express Line", Zürich-Munich-Vienna. This led Lufthansa to ask Heinkel for a model that could top Orion's speed, leading to the Heinkel He 70. The first trans-Alpine route was introduced in 1933: Zürich-Milan.
For the first time in Europe, flight attendants were employed aboard the Curtiss Condor beginning in 1934. Nelly Diener, the first female flight attendant in Europe, became world-famous. She was killed after just 79 flights in a crash near Wurmlingen, Germany, on 27 July 1934. The cause of the crash was determined to be material fatigue.
In 1936, Douglas DC-2s were acquired, and London was added to the route network. In 1937, the bigger Douglas DC-3 was bought. In the same year, both founding fathers died: Walter Mittelholzer died while mountaineering in Steiermark, Austria, and Balz Zimmermann succumbed to an infectious disease.
On 27 August 1939, days before World War II broke out, the airspace over Germany and France was closed. Swissair was forced to suspend service to Amsterdam, Paris, and London. Two days later, the Swissair service was closed completely. Of 180 employees, 131 had to serve in the army. Despite the war, some routes were later reintroduced, such as Munich, Berlin, Rome, and Barcelona. In 1940, an invasion of Switzerland was feared, and Swissair moved their operations to the Magadino Plains in Ticino. Operations were suspended in August 1944, when a Swissair DC-2 was destroyed in Stuttgart during an American bombing raid.
On 30 July 1945, Swissair was able to resume commercial aviation.This section was translated from the article "Swissair" in the German-language Wikipedia, version
Ascension
In 1947, the rise of shareholder capital to enabled long-haul flights to New York, South Africa, and South America with Douglas DC-4s. The modern Convair 240, the first Swissair plane with a pressurised cabin, was used for short- and medium-range flights starting in late 1948. The first Swissair DC-4 flight to New York was routed via Shannon, Ireland, and Stephenville, Newfoundland, on 2 May 1947. However, it ended in Washington, D.C., due to fog at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The total elapsed time was 20 hours and 55 minutes.
The public, including the federal government, cantons, municipalities, the Swiss Federal Railways, and the Swiss postal services, took over 30.6% of the shares and enabled Swissair to get a credit of 15 million Swiss francs to purchase the airline's first two Douglas DC-6B airliners for delivery in 1951. By that act, Swissair became Switzerland's national flag carrier. The new pressurised aircraft was to replace the DC-4 on transatlantic routes.
In 1948, the airport in Dübendorf, which had served as the base of Swissair, was relocated to Zürich-Kloten. Military aviation continued in Dübendorf. The next year, Swissair plunged into a financial crisis due to a sudden devaluation of the British pound because fares, except for traffic to the United States, were calculated in British currency. At that time, traffic to England made up 40 per cent of Swissair's revenue.
In June 1950, Walter Berchtold, manager of Swiss Federal Railways, was elected to the directorial board of Swissair and served as its director. In 1971, he created the corporate culture of Swissair. He grasped the importance of corporate image and corporate identity, and after the example of BOAC's "Speedbird", he introduced the arrow-shaped Swissair logo. Giving flight personnel a distinct uniform was also an important move. At the time, flight attendants' uniforms resembled the grey-blue ones of the Swiss Women's Army Corps, so Berchtold introduced ones in a modish marine blue. Swissair initiated a veritable fashion competition among European airlines.
In 1952, the cabin layout on northern transatlantic routes was changed to one with a first and a tourist (economy) class. The first-class cabin had comfortable chairs on which one could sleep, given the name "Slumberettes". Those sleeping chairs were soon succeeded by beds, modelled after the US Pullman railway cars. Two adjacent seats were moved towards each other and formed a lower berth. The wall panel could be folded downward, forming the upper berth in which the other person could sleep. A year later, a tourist-class cabin was introduced on intra-European flights.
In 1953, Swissair, with the city of Basel, founded a charter company called Balair, reusing the name of one of its predecessors, a company that initially used older Swissair aircraft to fly to holiday destinations.
As the first European customer, Swissair bought the Douglas DC-7C, which enabled the company to provide non-stop flights to the United States. For shorter-range routes, the Convair Metropolitan was used.
In 1957, the Far East was added to the route network. Direct flights to Tokyo had intermediate stops in Athens, Karachi, Bombay, Bangkok and Manila. That same year, Swissair partnered with Aristotle Onassis to form the new Greek airline, Olympic Airways.
While competitors first looked at turboprop aeroplanes to replace their piston-engined craft, Swissair introduced jet aeroplanes. Together with SAS, Swissair bought Douglas DC-8s, which were delivered beginning in 1960. For medium- and short-range routes, the Sud Aviation Caravelle was purchased. The aircraft were maintained in concert with SAS, and manuals for operation and maintenance were co-written.
Swissair was one of the few companies to order the Convair 990 Coronado for its medium- and long-range routes. Although the aircraft did not initially fulfil contractual specifications, they were liked by employees and customers. They operated on the airline's routes to South America, West Africa, and the Middle and Far East.
1966 saw the introduction of the Douglas DC-9. That aircraft became the backbone of the short- and medium-range routes and, after convincing Douglas, soon merged with McDonnell Aircraft to create McDonnell Douglas and ultimately merged with Boeing, offering a stretched variant: the DC-9-32. For the first time, Swissair was the launch customer of an aircraft type.
Armin Baltensweiler led the company for more than 20 years after taking over as president of the directorial board in 1971. In the same year, the first Boeing 747-200 jumbo jet was acquired, and in the next year, the first McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 followed. Both types shaped the long-haul fleet until the 1990s. Again, the specifications of both aircraft were developed in collaboration with SAS. Also in 1972, Switzerland introduced a prohibition of night flights, which led to the cessation of cheaper night fares.
In 1973, the company struggled with severe turbulence: a currency crisis, collective chaos, an air traffic controllers' strike, the October War, and the first oil crisis were weathered without significant damage. In the same year, the regional representative of Swissair in Buenos Aires was kidnapped by the Montoneros. After 38 days in captivity, he was released after the payment of . The airline also phased out the CV-990s, which were a type of aircraft known for their distinctive design and performance, during that time.
Swissair was the second European airline to offer service to the People's Republic of China, introducing service to Beijing and Shanghai in 1975. In the same year, Swissair was the launch customer for the DC-9-51. In 1977, Swissair was the launch customer for the third DC-9 type, the DC-9-81 variant, now called the MD-80. Armin Baltensweiler had travelled to a meeting of the McDonnell-Douglas board of directors in St. Louis to convince them to further stretch the fuselage of the DC-9-51. Baltensweiler was called the "Father of the MD-80". In 1979, Swissair was the first company to order the Airbus A310 and the jumbo jet variant with a stretched upper deck, the Boeing 747-300. Later on, the Fokker 100 short-range aircraft and the three-engined MD-11 were aircraft for which Swissair was the launch customer. 1983 saw the replacement of the older DC-9s with MD-83s.
Since the 1960s, Swissair has been a world leader in the development of cargo reservation systems (CRS). PARS and CARIDO were examples of systems enabling the booking of passenger seats and freight space.
"The flying bank"