swiss airline pictures

Swiss International Air Lines AG (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 Zürich Airport (ZRH).

Swiss is a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa. It is headquartered at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg near Basel, Switzerland. Swiss also has an office at Zürich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland.[3] The company's registered office is within the city of Basel.[4]

The airline uses the IATA Code LX that 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.

swiss airline set
swiss airline image
swiss airline
swiss airline pic
swiss airline picture

The airline was formed after the 2002 bankruptcy of Swissair, Switzerland's former flag carrier. The new airline's losses totaled $1.6 billion from startup until 2005. Swissair's biggest creditors, Credit Suisse and UBS, sold 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 31 March 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%). It has a total of 7383 employees.[5]
Airbus A340 at Narita Airport, Japan

Swiss International Air Lines, or "Swiss", was founded from the remains of Crossair. Crossair had 40% of its income come from the defunct Swissair. The first year was plagued with loss and the Swiss government gave the airline the then-equivalent of $1.5 billion, which was used up within two years.

According to Marcel Biedermann, the managing director intercontinental markets for Swiss, there were three possibilities: stay independent as a niche carrier, shrink to an unrecognisable 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 seemed 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, which competes with Swiss on many long-haul routes. On 3 June 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.
[edit] Recovery
A Swiss A340
Sanno Park Tower Annex, which has the Swiss House (スイスハウス Suisu Hausu), the Japanese offices of Swiss International Air Lines, in Chiyoda, Tokyo

The airline annually halved its losses, and in 2006 received a net profit of $220 million. The net profit for 2007 was $570 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 Group 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 the Star Alliance on 1 April 2006, when it also became a member of Lufthansa's Miles and 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.

In 2008 Swiss International Air Lines acquired Edelweiss Air[6] [7] and Servair[8] - now Swiss Private Aviation.

The Swiss brand still retains a high respect with travellers, as can be seen by the company coming top of the upmarket Condé Nast Traveller readers' survey[9] for short haul flights in 2008.

In 2007, Swiss placed order for 9 Airbus 330-300 aircraft to eventually replace the existing fleet of its 9 A330-200 aircraft. The A333 would be more environmentally friendly and have 3-class seating. With each arrival of an A330-300 jet which began in April 2009, one A330-200 will be retired from the fleet. The first A330-300 jet was put into service from Zurich to New York (JFK). As of spring 2010, Swiss operates five A330-300s on routes from Geneva to New York (JFK), as well as Zurich to New York (JFK), Delhi, Mumbai, and Dubai & Muscat. As of April 2010, the A330-300 will fly from Zurich to Nairobi & Dar es Salaam and Yaoundé & Douala. The remaining order of A330-300 aircraft will be joining the fleet by 2011