belair "grounding"
 

Apparently belair employees aren't flying today, information is rather scant though.

It seems like there was an internal announcement regarding shutting belair down by March, so the employees feel they're unable to work as of today:
http://www.blick.ch/news/wirtschaft/...id6030145.html

Belair is profitable
 

In this case I have some sympathy for them.

Belair has undergone a rigorous cost cutting exercise, which included salary cuts for most employees, about three years ago. Belair became profitable and was infact one of the few profitable parts of AB over the last two years. I don't understand at all, why AB is planning to close down it's profitable parts, such as Belair:confused:

A real shame about belair, another small airline looks like it will bite the dust. Sounds a bit like Monarch Airlines over in England, but they got rescued. I haven't seen belair branded planes around at ZRH for a long time. Wasn't there something similar called Balair CTA a few years back, in Swissair days?

From an airberlin perspective, there was very little customer awareness of the belair brand, apart from a small logo as you boarded the plane (my ZRH-DUS and vv flights). The whole interior had been completely fitted with the airberlin look. Even the safety card, which nearly always has the operating carrier on it, was airberlin branded. The crew always seemed pleased when I acknowledged there as a belair team.