Swiss International Airlines is Switzerland's flag carrier, and it schedules services in South America, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. The Geneva Airport and Zurich Airport are the focus city and main hub, respectively. This airline company was formed following the bankruptcy of Swissair in the year 2002. Crossair was Swissair’s new subsidiary the new airline was built around. The airline company is a main member of Star Alliance and a subsidiary of Lufthansa Group.

The headquarters are at the Zurich Airport in Kloten and EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg near Basel. The primary registered office of the company is in Basel. It was also announced that Dieter Vranckx would assume the CEO position on 1 January 2021. He has 20 years of overall experience within the Lufthansa Group and is currently the CEO of Lufthansa Group.

Beginning

Credit Suisse and UBS were the biggest creditors of Swissair, and they sold a part of Swissair’s assets to Crossair. Crossair also changed its name to Swiss International Air Lines. This new national airline started its operations on 31 March 2002. The following were the investors of the airlines-

The airline company has a total of 7383 employees. Marcel Biedermann, who is the managing director of the intercontinental markets for Swiss, predicted three possibilities-

After many months of disputes, the Swiss Airline was accepted into the OneWorld airline alliance. Swiss announced its decision not to join the Oneworld on 3 June 2004 as it did not want to integrate its current frequent flyer program into British Airways.

Recovery

In 2006, the airline recorded a net profit of $220 million, and in 2007, it recorded a net profit of $570 million. Lufthansa Group also confirmed its plan to take over Swiss on 22 March 2005. They started with a minority stake of 11%. The Swiss operations were gradually integrated with Lufthansa in late 2005. The takeover was also completed on 1 July 2007. The airline company joined Star Alliance and also became a member of Lufthansa’s Miles and More Frequent flyer program on 1 April 2006.

It also established a regional airline subsidiary called Swiss European Airlines. It had two divisions- the Swiss Aviation Training and the Swiss WorldCargo. In the year 2011, Swiss Private Aviation also ceased its operations as a result of restructuring. In 2007, the Swiss ordered nine Airbus A330-300s to gradually replace the existing A330-200s. In the spring of 2010, Swiss operates five A330-300s on medium and long-haul routes.

Takeover by Lufthansa.

The regional fleet was also changed from Crossair’s Embraer ERJs and Saabs to Avro RJs following the Lufthansa group’s takeover. The rest of the fleet was rationalized, and it consists of Airbus Aircraft and Swiss also renegotiated the supplier contracts, including the maintenance, group handling and food service. Lufthansa maintains Swiss as a separate brand. Swiss and Lufthansa got named in a European Commission investigation in 2010, and in 2011, Swiss introduced a new company logo that resembled the symbol of the defunct Swissair.

Head office

Swiss International Airlines has its operational headquarters at the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg. The airport is located on the French territory and has customs-free access to Switzerland. The head office is located in the Swiss section of airport. It is only accessible from Switzerland. The legal seat is in Basel itself.

The International Air Line's head office was previously head office of Crossair.

The Basel area offices house about 1000 employees as of 2004, and the Zurich area offices house about 850 employees.

Inflight service

Swiss serves drinks on European flights. The airline company can also serve snacks depending on the time of the day or the flight duration. Hot snacks are served on longer flights, and cold snacks are served on shorter flights. The economy-class services include sandwiches from the Swiss bakery. A small bar of Swiss chocolate is also provided to the passengers before landing on all flights.

Trains and buses

The air train service allows its passengers to take SBB train at no extra charge from the Zurich Airport to the Basel SBB Railway station.