MilesBuzz! - SwissAir to file Bankruptcy (Confirmed as of 1pmEST)

Swissair to Seek Bankruptcy Protection, Sell Crossair (Update1)

Zurich, Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Swissair Group, the operator of Europe's seventh-largest airline, said it will seek bankruptcy protection for some operations and sell its controlling stake in Crossair AG to Credit Suisse Group and UBS AG.

Swissair said it will raise 1 billion Swiss francs ($618 million) from the sale of Crossair and use the proceeds as well as a loan from the banks to avoid bankruptcy.

see: http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Top%20Financial%20News&s1=blk&tp=ad_topright_topfin&refer=topfin&T=markets_bfgcgi_content99.ht&s2=blk&bt=ad_position1_topfin&middle=ad_f rame2_topfin&s=AO7igZhbRU3dpc3Nh

Which almost certainly also means the end of Belgian carrier Sabena in which Swissair had a 49% stake.

More stories on this:
http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/011001/attacks_swissair_3.html

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011001/zur159649_1.html

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011001/zur158375_1.html

And which almost certainly means, that qualiflier miles are lost...?

More information from SwissAir's website:

"Crossair plans to take over individual segments, amounting in total to two-thirds, of Swissair’s flight operations, thereby creating a competitive Swiss airline that would be active on a world-wide basis. This would take place no later than the beginning of the winter timetables on October 28.

The trimming of the route network and the fleet will also cause a capacity reduction at Swissair that will result in the loss of 2560 jobs, 1750 of those in Switzerland. Operations will be maintained at normal levels in all other Group companies."

see: http://srapps.swissair.com/srpress/one.po?idx=0

So how does this affect people with SR tickets? Do I have to worry about flight cancellations (again)? Is it premature to ask them for protection on another carrier?

ScottC - here is news on the latest about Sabena:

"Sabena had grounded more than a quarter of its flights on Monday as a pilots' strike went into a fourth day in protest against plans to restructure the ailing Belgian airline. Corti said he had told the Belgian government that Swissair ``could not and cannot'' inject around 200 million Swiss francs into Sabena this week as agreed under a rescue plan with the Belgian government. Both the Belgian state and Sabena said on Monday they could go to court if Swissair does not live up to the agreement"

see: http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011001/l01382058_5.html

Don't get me wrong I DO NOT FLY SABENA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif just curious how long they are able to survive after all the trouble they have been through. As for sueing Swissair, I thing the belgian politicans should do some homework, why do they thing Swissair is going bust? One of the resaons was the 300 million they promised Sabena...

They cite Sept 11 as a major factor -- you would almost think that being a carrier for a "neutral" country during uncertain times, Swissair would have increased business instead of losing it.

Well the scary part is that Swiss Air is supported already by the government, just as other individual European country airlines. What will this spell say for carriers who are privately owned and in fierce competition with each other ie. US market comes to mind.

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by worldbanker:
Well the scary part is that Swiss Air is supported already by the government, just as other individual European country airlines. What will this spell say for carriers who are privately owned and in fierce competition with each other ie. US market comes to mind.
</font>

Although the state and cantons are shareholders, there was a big debate as to whether or not the government should inject funds. The solution that was found will not require the any state funds. Swissair is generally considered to be a privately owned airline and not state-subsidised.

Well it looks like they've bit the dust. Flights are grounded as of 1230 CET.

They even siezed a plane at Heathrow for non-payment of landing fees. Yikes!

From Swissair's web site:

"Zurich-Airport, October 2, 2001 -– Swissair’s flight operations were suspended at 12:30 CET. All aircraft that are currently airborne en route will continue their flights to their destination as scheduled."

At least those planes in the air did not turn around to head back to ZRH!

http://srapps.swissair.com/srpress/one.po?idx=458498690

And the fuel companies have refused to refuel until deposits have been made...

Double, triple, whatever Yikes!

Zürich, October 2nd, 2001

Zurich Airport, October 2, 2001 – Swissair has been forced to cease all flight operations today with immediate effect. Despite intensive efforts throughout the day, the company has been unable to obtain the liquidity needed to secure daily business and safe operations. It is uncertain at this time when flight operations will resume.

http://srapps.swissair.com/srpress/one.po?idx=83006228

A comprehensive news story on the SwissAir shutdown from Reuters:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/011002/80/c61vg.html

Note that Sabena will probably get sucked down too unless the Belgian gov steps in with cash.

And WHEN/IF the belgian government does that all the other countries will take the belgians to court for providing "illegal" subsidies, isn't europe a great place! thousands of folks on the street unemployed just because of european laws...

Folks,

FYI lot of discussion on this topic (which is probably where it belongs) on the Qualiflyer (Swissair, Sabena) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forumcgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Qualiflyer+(Swissair,+Sabena)&number=40&DaysPrune=5&LastLogin=) forum!

Hillrider,

I respectfully disagree, this is more than just a Qualifier issue. This impacts all of us who fly on business and pleasure. I was shocked to hear this, this morning. Swissair used to be the safe heaven. I do think it is not entirely the effect of Sep. 11th. They made a lot of investments that went bad.