Fendant

Everybody outside Switzerland is still calling it Swissair. During the bankruptcy procedure they were forced for legal reasosn to fly under the LX designator of the dreadful Crossair. Lately a travel agent in Djakarta tried to book me under the SR flight number "The systems has a problem Mista, I will call Swissair in Singapore to sort it out".

In a few weeks the horrible events of Oct. 4th 2001 are 8 years behing us. I would love to see the name again and the trusted SR flight numbers.

rorschi

There were indeed discussions about four years ago that LH will buy the name rights for "Swissair", but I don't know the outcome of that. That deal would also make sense for debaring the competitors from buying this brand.

Concerning the designator, the ICAO-code SWR (mainly used by the air controllers) was re-introduced in October 2002 and replaced the former Crossair-Code CRX.

But honestly, for most foreign passengers, SWISS sounds like a rebranding of Swissair. And I know the history and can live with - my Swissair-memories contain mostly the dreadful black biz-seats on the MD11, which were by far worse than nowaday's luxury-biz on the A330-200

And don't forget that the brand of SWISS's new sister-company is also just "AUSTRIAN"...

f4freeJunior

Agreed - please give us back the old "SR" flight numbers! So much better than "LX".

NA-Flyer

I doubt that anyone will see the "SR" flight numbers or the title SWISSAIR back any time in the future.

The plan was from the begining to delete that brand name totally to avoid any possible legal action from creditors who might chase LH for their lost money with the former SR Group

airoli

While I would not mind the "SR" code returning (and it would probably be more intuitive to understand for infrequent flyers), the IT costs alone - across the entire *A framework - will ensure this never happens.

As for the Swissair brand: SWISS was intentionally chosen for its resemblance, but legal difference, to Swissair. The "confusions" mentioned by the OP's Indonesian travel agent show that the strategy works out and SWISS manages to shine in some of the good reputation Swissair enjoyed in far-away markets.

It will not change.

Flying Lawyer

Perfectly true. They will avoid this name as much as they can. And way should they use it? Others change from "Austrian Airlines" to a market brand of "Austrian" and in Switzerland it should go v/v? Swissair is dead and buried after struggeling for so long.

lhrpete

I can't help but think that even without the demise of Swissair the brand was due an overhaul particularly in terms of livery which I think was tired. I think the Swiss brand is brilliant, one of the most powerful and still fresh when compared to almost any other particularly in Europe, the new Austrian isn't a patch on it.

I do agree that losing the LX code in favour of SR would be a good thing but as I get older I learn that you can never have everything.

In the current climate, Swiss is an excellent brand and strong again, I choose Swiss as often as I can and always in preference to LH or OS for *A travel in Europe. If they put the LH shorthaul C seats on European services instead of the current offering they would be unbeatable.

Rustscheff

From what I remember Swiss actually tried to re-name itself Swiss Air International, but was not allowed to use such a similar name after going bust...

rorschi

No, they intially wanted to name the airline "Swiss Airlines", and before the "new airline" started it's operations, some aircraft and some paper material were branded with this name (I guess even the first timetable).

For avoiding troubles with the obligees of Swissair because of the very similar name, the management decided to put the world "international" in between - a few days before the old Crossair became officially our new national carrier.

The short brand name is just SWISS, indeed.

Fendant

Does that mean Lufti will brand Brussels as "Belgian" ?

rorschi

No just "Brussels"

Or, look at this picture: http://www.lustiges.ch/download/Swiss-Luft.jpg

Hennessy

Official register shows "Swiss International Air Lines AG": www.zefix.ch

And nice to see that Christoph Franz is registered as "Hans Christoph".

Hennessy

As can be read here: http://bazonline.ch/wirtschaft/unter...story/31437367

Short resume: Swiss buys the Swissair name rights. Not necessarily to use it, but to avoid that someone else could buy and use it. No money is paid, but Swiss renounces all pending claims they still have vs the bankrupt Swissair (approx. worth 10 mio CHF).

tidu

Haven't heard the brand name Swissair for quite some while here (AT) as well as in other parts of the world.

at least in a positive context ... a pax next to me on LX289 while discussing the sale of OS to LH "... we had SR, but they only experienced losses ... it was good the finally got rid of it and started all over ..."

My 2cents: Introducing Swissair again would throw out all the money they spent on promoting the SWISS brand and I would not understand the economical benefit using a different ICAO code.

Cheers
tidu

LXFlyer

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtscha...story/31437367

Swiss just bought the rights to the Swissair name.