IWIM - Institut fr Weltwirtschaft und

Internationales Management
IWIM - Institute for World Economics and
International Management

Swissairs Collapse
An Economic Analysis

Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt

Materialien des Wissenschaftsschwerpunktes

Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft

Band 28

Hrsg. von
Andreas Knorr, Alfons Lemper, Axel Sell, Karl Wohlmuth
Universitt Bremen

Swissairs Collapse
An Economic Analysis
Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt

Andreas Knorr, Alfons Lemper, Axel Sell, Karl Wohlmuth (Hrsg.):

Materialien des Wissenschaftsschwerpunktes Globalisierung der
Weltwirtschaft, Bd. 28, September 2003,
ISSN 0948-3837
(ehemals: Materialien des Universittsschwerpunktes Internationale
Wirtschaftsbeziehungen und Internationales Management)
Bezug:

IWIM - Institut fr Weltwirtschaft

und Internationales Management
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Abstract
Swissairs rapid decline from one of the industries most renowned carriers into bankruptcy was the inevitable consequence of an ill-conceived alliance strategy which also
diluted Swissairs reputation as a high-quality carrier and the companys inability to
coordinate effectively its own operations with those of Crossair, its regional subsidiary.
However, we hold that while yearlong mismanagement was indeed the driving force
behind Swissairs demise, exogenous factors both helped and compounded it. These include, in our view, first and foremost, the Swiss peoples rejection of the European
Economic Area (EEA) Treaty in a 1992 referendum, Switzerlands protectionist aviation policy, and media failure.

Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................ i
Table of Contents............................................................................................................ ii
Index of Tables............................................................................................................... iii
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4
Swissair/SAirGroup A Company Profile .................................................................... 5
Economic Analysis.......................................................................................................... 9
Principal Causes ........................................................................................................... 9
A Failed Alliance Strategy ....................................................................................... 9
A Chronology of Events ....................................................................................... 9
Evaluation........................................................................................................... 11
Swissair vs. Crossair: Competition Instead of Cooperation and Integration ......... 13
Contributing Factors ................................................................................................... 14
Outlook .......................................................................................................................... 15
Bibliography.................................................................................................................. 17

ii

Index of Tables
Table 1: Swissair/SAirGroups Growth 1931-2000 at a Glance ...................................... 5
Table 2: Five Year Review (in million CHF)................................................................... 7
Table 3: The Company Structure ..................................................................................... 8
Table 4: Breakdown of EBIT by business unit (in million CHF) .................................... 8
Table 5: Swissair's equity stakes (%) in other airlines as of 2000 ................................. 10
Table 6: Profits/(losses) from associated undertakings (in million CHF) ...................... 13

iii

Swissairs Collapse
An Economic Analysis
Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt

Introduction
On October 2nd, 2001, the entire Swissair fleet was grounded due to the insolvency of its
parent company, the SAirGroup1. Two days the latter it plus some of its subsidiaries
(most notably SAirlines and Flightlease) were forced into Chapter 11-like
Nachlassstundung to seek protection from their creditors. Around one month later, on
November 7th, Belgiums Sabena, in which the SAirGroup had held a 49.5 per cent
stake since 1995, had to declare bankruptcy, too. With the aim to prevent a permanent
grounding of the airline with the resulting loss of valuable slots and gates both at
Swissairs Zurich hub and at all its former destinations, to provide for a smooth and
orderly reallocation of as many jobs and assets as possible to a new national carrier and
to keep vital air links to and from Switzerland largely intact, the Swiss Government
almost immediately granted an emergency bridge loan of initially Sfr. 450 mio. ( 292
mio.); with the restructuring process dragging on longer than expected it had to be
topped up by an additional Sfr. 1.6 bn. ( 1.0 bn.) only a few weeks later. In sum,
Switzerlands Federal Government, the Cantonal governments, and private investors
including the countries two largest banks UBS and Credit Suisse and most major Swiss
companies spent Sfr. 4.25 bn. ( 2.75 bn.) to replace the defunct SAirGroup with
SWISS, the new national airline i.e. Sfr. 600 ( 388) per inhabitant (or Sfr. 375 per
head if only public funds are counted)!2 The latter was built up around the Crossair
nucleus, then Europes largest regional airline and one of the SAirGroups few
remaining commercially viable subsidiaries and began operations on March 31st, 2002.
The Swissair collapse is unique not only because the airline was the first European flag
carrier ever to fold.3 More important still, although the companys woes became increasingly obvious, the speed of its demise was astounding. For decades, until the early
1990ies, it had consistently boasted one of the industrys strongest balance sheets, earning the company the nick-name flying bank. Immediately before its collapse, however, SAirGroups equity had been almost completely wiped out (equity ratio on August
31st, 2001: 2.55 per cent!).4 What is more, in the last full fiscal year of its existence,

University of Bremen, Faculty 7: Business Studies and Economics, Institute for World Economics and International Management, P.O. Box 33 04 40, 28334 Bremen, Germany, Phone: +49421-2182259 (Knorr), +49-421-2182458 (Arndt); Fax: +49-421-2184550; E-mail: [email protected] (Knorr), [email protected] (Arndt).

In this text, for simplicity we will use Swissair and SAirGroup officially created as a holding
company on January 1st, 1995 synonymously.

By comparison, the US governments support for airlines after 9/11 amounted to a paltry $18 (
Sfr. 30) per head.

Swissairs and Sabenas bankruptcies respectively were their countries biggest ever.

See Ernst & Young (2002).

ending December 31st, 2000, it had not only accumulated liabilities of Sfr. 18.86 bn. (
12.25 bn.), up from Sfr. 13.46 bn. ( 8.75 bn.) the year before. SAirGroup also had
to post negative earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to the order of Sfr. 2.59 bn. (
1.68 bn.).5 Widely, but wrongly, associated with the events of September 11th, we will
argue in this paper, that the companys fate was almost inevitably the consequence of
incredible incompetence at both the top management and supervisory board levels as
regards the groups alliance strategy and internal coordination failures seriously compounded, however, by a number of factors outside Swissairs control.

Swissair/SAirGroup A Company Profile

Schweizerische Luftverkehrs AG or rather Swissair as the company would be known
later was established on March 26, 1931, with the merger of Zurich-based Ad Astra
Aero AG and Basler Luftverkehr (Balair).6 From its very beginnings the company
successfully pursued a high-quality strategy stressing safety, passenger comfort,
reliability and punctuality, winning it many Best airline-awards in all decades to
come. For example, the company became, in 1932, the first European airline to
introduce Lockheed Orion high-speed aircraft to its fleet which reached a cruising speed
almost twice as fast as that of existing passenger planes. Later, it would regularly be
amongst the launching customers for many important aircraft programs including the
B747-300, the A310, the MD-80 and the MD-11. Another premiere, for Europe at least,
was the companys 1934 decision to employ air hostesses on its passenger flights. After
World War II, Swissairs rapid growth helped it become one the worlds major
international airlines both in terms of passengers carried and available passenger miles
(table 1). From the 1960ies until its demise in 2001 it had managed to establish itself
firmly around rank 20. The quality focus, compounded by the general lack of
competition in the airline industry, came at a price, however: overmanning, with
personnel costs reaching 39 % of the company's total operating costs, one of the highest
percentages in the industry, and an ever-rising break-even load factor as a result.
Table 1: Swissair/SAirGroups Growth 1931-2000 at a Glance
Size of fleet
Number of employees
(full-time equivalent)
Number of revenue passengers
Number of cities served
Break-even load factor

1931
13
64

1946
16
789

1970
35
13,280

2000
161
71,900

10,282
20
n/a

62,378
15
n/a

3.9 mio
75
49 %

19.2 mio
218
75 %

Source: von Schroeder (2002: 17).

5

See SAirGroup (2001: 9).

For details see Gratenau (2002: 4ff.); von Schroeder (2002). Ad Astra Aero was one of three
Swiss airlines founded in 1919. Due to economic difficulties it took over its two competitors
Aero-Gesellschaft Compte-Mittelholzer & Co. and Avion Tourisme in February 1920. Balair
was established in 1925. It was the first of three Swiss airlines bearing this name until today.

Throughout the entire post-war period until around the early to mid-1990ies, Swissair's
attitude with regard to financial management can only be described as extremely riskaverse resulting in one of the industrys strongest balance sheets and an excellent
credit rating. Behind this were, first, at 1.2 : 1, a very demanding internal ceiling for the
maximum acceptable debt-to-equity ratio. Much more often than not, the actual figure
was even better, and only in one fiscal year, Swissair came close to this limit. Second, a
very conservative depreciation policy permitted the company to generate both a healthy
cash flow and substantial hidden reserves.7
The traditionally prudent fiscal stance was abandoned in the mid-1990ies, however,
when Swissair or rather the SAirGroup as it had been renamed by then embarked
upon an ambitious equity-based alliance and acquisition strategy. Equally focused upon
both airline partnerships and non-airline activities it had been considered indispensable
by the companys top management and its supervisory board to establish Swissair
firmly as the no. 3 or no. 4 player in an increasingly deregulated European aviation
market to which the carrier had only limited access after Switzerlands surprising 1992
veto to join the European Economic Area (EEA). Swissair has long since been painfully
aware of the limited growth potential of its homemarket the countrys population is
only 7 million , which due to high labor costs and the countrys strong currency is also
one of the most expensive business locations in the world , and the very cyclical nature
of the airline industry.
As a result, it was one of the first carriers in Europe and the world to expand into
ancillary and non-aviation activities including but not confined to maintenance and
repair, ground handling, IT, aircraft leasing, catering, duty free, hotels, aerial photography, and even agriculture, all of which by 2001 accounted for more than half of SAirGroups employees and most of its profits. Moreover, Swissair was also one of the very
first airlines to seek close ties with other carriers. Dating back to the late 1960ies,
Swissair's first alliance was the KSSU group (with KLM, SAS and UTA)8 for the joint
maintenance of widebody aircraft which were being introduced at that time. As early as
1989, it began forging alliances in its core passenger business, too: the European Quality Alliance (Sabena, Austrian Airlines, SAS and Finnair), Atlantic Excellence (Delta,
later complemented by Austrian Airlines and Sabena) and Global Excellence (Delta and
Singapore Airlines). Two events, however, prompted Swissair to fundamentally rethink
its alliance strategy:

The failure of the visionary Alcazar project, a proposed wide-ranging tie-up of

four small and medium-sized carriers (Swissair, KLM, SAS and Austrian Airlines
with a full-blown merger as the final objective so as to create a counterweight to
the Big Three Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways which were then
and still are dominating the European airline industry; and

the defection of many of its most important airlines partners to competing

alliances from the mid-1990ies.

See von Schroeder (2002: 214).

As early as 1950, Swissair, KLM and Sabena had created a joint spare parts pool in the so-called
BeNeSwiss Agreement. In 1958 Swissair and SAS had crafted a cooperative agreement to
standardize their fleets around a number of jet types and to pool maintenance and training
resource. See Wegg (2002: 17)

Instead of joining one of the major alliances, too an option that both management and
supervisory board never seriously considered , the company decided to create two
Swissair-led and equity-based alliances: Qualiflyer (with smaller non-aligned European
flag carriers as its members) and the European Leisure Group (in the charter market).
For reasons we will discuss in more details in the chapters below, this two-pronged approach aimed at diversifying risk and securing its long-term growth was of the key
factors behind the company's insolvency, however. This is because, while being
commercially sensible in principle for a carrier as small as Swissair, its version was
both badly conceived and implemented. The following tables 2-4 provide a general
overview of the SAirGroup's commercial activities an extremely complex web of 260
companies (including all minority shareholdings) and of the (increasingly precarious)
state of its finances by the end of FY 2000, its last full year in business before the
grounding.
Table 2: Five Year Review (in million CHF)
1996
8,212
Total operating revenue
Earnings before interest and 344
taxes (EBIT)
(497)
Net profit/(loss) for the year

1997
10,556
658

1998
11,297
700

1999
13,002
643

2000
16,229
(2,592)

324

361

273

(2,885)

Liabilities and shareholders'

equity
Liabilities*
9,708
Shareholders' equity
2,109

10,191
2,439

11,181
3,549

13,673
4,181

19,055
1,160

Personnel (full-time positions) 36,050

39,967

43,696

68,442

71,905

*including current liabilities, non-current liabilities, provisions and minority interests.

Source: SAirGroup (the holding company) (2001: 42).

Table 3: The Company Structure

SAirGroup (the holding company)
SAirGroup Finance (NL) B.V.
SAirGroup Finance (USA), Inc.
SAirGroup International Finance I
Beyoo AG
DSS World Sourcing AG
Polygon Group Ltd.
Panalpina Welttransport (Holding) AG
EHC Kloten Sport AG
SAirLines

swissair
Crossair
balair
Flightlease

SAirLogistics
- swisscargo
- cargologic

SAirServices
- swissport
- SR Technics
- atraxis
- aviReal
- protaxi
- prohotel

SAirRelations
- swisstel
- Gategourmet
- railgourmet
- restorama
- gourmetNova
- Nuancegroup

total:
46 subsidiaries

total:
9 subsidiaries

total:
72 subsidiaries

total:
125 subsidiaries

Source: SAirGroup (the holding company) (2001: 34ff.).

Table 4: Breakdown of EBIT by business unit (in million CHF)

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001-1H

EBIT by division
SAirLines
SAirServices
SAirLogistics
SAirRelations
SAirGroup
SAirLines investments

264
127
43
181
43

354
145
33
153
15

188
165
6
269
95
(80)

35
162
99
300
68
(3,256)

138
(6)
17
56
(111)
(137)

Total EBIT

658

700

643

(2,592)

(43)

Source: Suen (2002: 361).

Economic Analysis
Principal Causes
A Failed Alliance Strategy
A Chronology of Events

In 1989, Swissair became the first European airline to seal a partnership agreement with
an overseas carriers: Delta. Part of the arrangement was a mutual 5 per cent equity
swap. One year later, a similar deal with Singapore Airlines, which in turn was already
cooperating with Delta, followed. An arrangement with Swissair's first choice Thai
Airways failed to materialize because of objections held by the Thai government.
Given the fact, that Bangkok was by far the most important Southeast Asian airport in
Swissair's network, handling almost 80 per cent of the company's local traffic,
strategically Thai Airways would have been a much better fit, however, as well as a
more reliable partner than Singapore Airlines.9 Also in 1989, Swissair signed an
important partnership agreement with SAS which ironically at that time was cooperating with Thai Airways in Asia (and Continental in the USA) , giving it better
access to the vital EU market. In 1990, Austrian Airlines and Finnair joined in, and the
group was named European Quality Alliance (EQA).
On December 6th, 1992,10 rather unexpectedly, 50.3 per cent of the Swiss population
voted against the ratification of the European Economic Area (EEA) Treaty. Swissair
was particularly hard hit by the veto. Instead of being granted 3rd and 4th freedom rights
into the EU with immediate effect, 5th and 6th freedom rights two years later and the
option to open 8th freedom rights negotiations five years later, as well as the abolition of
some ownership restrictions, Switzerland was now forced to renegotiate its existing
and rather restrictive bilateral air service agreements with every single EU memberstate.11 Equal access for Switzerland-based airlines to the EU market was granted only
in combination with a wider bilateral deal between the EU and Switzerland the socalled Personenverkehrsabkommen (passenger transport agreement). It was ratified by
Switzerland on May 21st, 2000, and entered into force on June 1st, 2002 (with some
transitional provisions in force until June 1st, 2004).12
Swissair's first reaction to the veto was to push ahead with the Alcazar project: Acronym for Alone carriers zigzag at random, secret talks had begun in fall 1992 between
Swissair, SAS, Austrian and KLM to form an unprecedented alliance. Starting with joint
management structures and ever increasing cooperation, a full-blown merger was fixed
as the ultimate objective as soon as it would be legally feasible. On November 21st,
1993, however, Alcazar was abandoned due to unfavorable media coverage, political
9

See Moser (2001: 61f.).

10

For a more comprehensive survey of events see Manager Magazin (2002).

11

See Saxer (1999).

12

See Saxer (1999).

pressure and insurmountable differences with regard to ownership and control as well as
organizational issues. The choice of the future US partner airline proved to be a
particular bone of contention. Swissairs insisted on Delta and refused to accept
Northwest KLM's favourite , although the latters share of the transatlantic market
substantially exceeded the formers.
Immediately after the breakdown of the talks Swissair began to seek a substitute partner
which it found in Belgium. Hence, on December 14th, 1994, Swissair's supervisory
board gave the green light for the acquisition of a 49.5 per cent stake in Belgiums flag
carrier Sabena. In late 1997, the board accepted the so-called Hunter strategy.13
Developed by McKinsey, a consultancy, it meant a Swissair-led equity-based alliance to
establish, with a 20 per cent market share in Europe as the stated objective, the company
firmly as one of the key players on the European market. Implementation began in
March 1998 when the Qualiflyer Group was created. Moreover, between June 1998 and
November 1999, Swissair spent Sfr 4.1 bn ( 2.65 bn.) to purchase significant
shareholdings in a variety of other airlines flag carriers as well as charter operators
and even one freight operator , the most important of which are displayed in table 5
below. Finally, substantial investment took place in aviation-related activities (as
illustrated by the takeover of Dobbs, a US-based caterer).
Table 5: Swissair's equity stakes (%) in other airlines as of 2000
Air Europe

49.0

Volare Air

34.0

Air Littoral

49.0

Austrian Airlines

10.0

AOM France

49.5

Balair/CTA Leisure

100.0

Crossair

70.5

Cargolux

33.7

LOT Polish

37.6

LTU Group

49.9

Portugalia

42.0

South African Airways

20.0

Sabena

49.5a

Ukraine International Airlines

5.6

TAP Air Portugal

34.0

Source: Own statement of facts based on SAirGroup (2001) and SAirGroup (the holding
company) (2001).
a
Binding commitment to increase share to 85%.
b
Comittment, but transaction had not taken place yet.

On September 21st, 2000, Swissairs supervisory board nodded off the managements
proposal to take over at least 50 per cent of Alitalia (code name: Vodka-project). The
plan was aborted only a few months later, when the board had to declare the failure of
the Hunter strategy and discussed exit scenarios for Swissair's mostly loss-making investments in the above-mentioned airlines. CEO Philippe Bruggisser was ousted on
January 20th, 2001. On January 25th, 2001, however, SAirGroup and the Belgian
government still agreed on the former to increase its share in Sabena to 85 per cent,

13

For details see Chang/Williams (2002: 134).

10

although it already was effectively controlled before14 with both sides ignoring the
fact that they were in clear breach of European laws which prohibits non-EU-based
investors to acquire more than a 49.5 per cent share in any EU-based airline.
Amazingly, the SAirGroup committed itself to fully compensate the Belgian
government for any damages that the latter might suffer if, for whatever reason, it would
withdraw from the deal.15 Finally, on April 2nd, 2001, SAirGroup's new Chairman of the
Board, Mario Corti, announced a loss of Sfr. 2.885 bn. ( 1.86 bn.) for FY 2000. Most
of it was due to the full consolidation of actual and imminent losses from the groups
interests in other airlines (before Corti no such consolidation had been performed).
Evaluation

As regards Swissairs Qualiflyer alliance Suen16 concludes in her analysis that while
strategy was sound the Swissair Groups bankruptcy is the result of failures in
implementing [it]. In particular she argues that, from a resource-based view, Swissair
did not need the large equity investments it committed to in order to prevent its partners
from defecting because the relationships were asymmetrical in Swissairs favor. This
point is valid insofar as all of Swissair's earlier alliances EQA, Atlantic Excellence and
Global Excellence had indeed collapsed because of the defections of key members to
competing groupings: Most notably, between 1996 and 2000 Singapore Airlines,
Austrian and SAS had all opted for the Star Alliance, in 1995 Finnair left for Oneworld,
and, finally, in 2000 Delta decided to create its own alliance, Skyteam, with Air France
instead of much smaller Swissair as its preferred European partner17 (Swissair was
invited to join in but declined the offer for fear of being scaled down to become a mere
regional partner).
While Swissairs equity-based approach to alliances may indeed be interpreted as an attempt to stabilize Qualiflyer, on this point we rather agree with the The Economists18
judgment that the true motivation behind it was to buy customers for the aviationservice business it was also acquiring. Indeed, Qualiflyer was unique amongst alliances
insofar as one airline Swissair in all respects (reputation, brand, financial clout, fleet
size, RPK, infrastructure etc.) clearly was the dominant force. What is more, Qualiflyer
was not organized as the web of bilateral arrangements amongst members on top of
some common mutual commitments which is typical of all other alliances. By contrast,
14

There is a large body of evidence proving this claim. First of all, almost immediately after
Swissair had acquired 49.5 percent of Sabenas equity, former Swissar executives were brought
in to become CEO. In addition, the SAirGroup decided to contract out the responsibility for both
carriers flight operations to a joint London-based subsidiary called Airline Management
Partnership (AMP). Finally the SAirGroup, a major Airbus operator, induced Sabena to switch
from Boeing to Airbus for a massive order of new jet aircraft (see Gumbel (2002);
Avonds/Bossier/Gilot/Van den Cruyce/Vanhorebeek (2002)).

15

Similar financial commitments were made almost every time the SAirGroup acquired a share in
another flag carrier.

16

See Suen (2002: 355 and 363).

17

Given the much bigger size of the French market, Air Frances status as a EU-carrier with full
access to the EU- and EEA-market, and the significant capacity reserves at Paris Charles de
Gaulle-Airport, Deltas decision was perfectly rational.

18

See The Economist (2001).

11

Qualiflyer was organized as a hub-and-spoke-system with almost all members

supposed, or even obliged to contract out many of their aviation-related services
(ground-handling, maintenance, IT) to a SAirGroup company or to lease their aircraft
from Flightlease, another subsidiary (sale-and-lease-back arrangements were also
common). While on the one hand increasing the groups share of the market for
ancillary services with SAirGroup companies being granted preferred or even exclusive supplier status , this approach on the other hand not only dramatically raised the
costs of the exit option. Moreover, as a result, Swissair was also forced to keep many of
its financially struggling partners afloat by means of huge capital injections both to
keep Qualiflyer viable and to protect its aviation-related businesses.
As originally devised by McKinsey, the Hunter strategy exclusively targeted smaller
European countries and markets with huge growth potential such as Belgium, Austria,
Finland, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Ireland only. Swissair was not supposed to
acquire more than 10-30 per cent of its partners equity, and a maximum of Sfr. 300
mio. ( $ 194 mio.) should be spent.19 Traffic from these markets should then be funneled through Zurich and Brussels airports to establish Swissairs and Sabenas, and
hence Qualiflyers, principal hubs amongst Europes key gateways especially to the
benefit of Swissairs intercontinental partners Delta and Singapore Airlines.20 In
practice, however, the acquisition strategy not only centered around the mature major
EU markets Italy, Germany and France and cost Sfr. 4.1 bn ( 2.65 bn.) to implement.
Even worse, Swissair was willing to accept in almost all cases (near-)full responsibility
for its partners financial obligations. What is more, due to lacking synergies, the Hunter strategy never supported an expansion into the volatile and low-margin charter
market.
Contrary to Suen, we also hold that Swissair's Qualiflyer alliance and hence the
Hunter strategy was not just badly implemented. It was also fundamentally flawed
in the following two key respects:

Through Qualiflyer, Swissairs management diluted the companys valuable

brand by predominantly selecting second- and thirdrate carriers as alliance
partners effectively only carriers that had been shunned by the other alliances
, the majority of whom had also suffered substantial losses for an extended
period of time (table 6 below). Sabena, for example had managed to post a profit
only twice throughout its 78-year history: in 1958 (because of the Expo taking
place in Brussels in that year) and in 1999 (due to some window-dressing by
means of a sales-and-lease-back deal with Flightlease).21

Not just tarnishing Swissairs well-established image as a high-quality operator,

Qualiflyer therefore also increasingly undermined the carriers ability to extract
premium fares from its passengers. Last not least, Swissairs increasing
dependence on much less profitable transfer traffic around 30-40 per cent of

19

See Ernst & Young (2002).

20

Amazingly, Swissairs management seems to have completely overlooked the fierce hub
competition Sabena faced in Brussels with London (BA), Frankfurt (LH), Paris (AF) and
Amsterdam (KL) only forty flight minutes away when it decided to invest in Sabena.

21

See Enz (2001), Moser (2001: 80f.). For an official evaluation of the effects of Sabenas bankruptcy for the Belgian economy see Avonds/Bossier/Gilot/Van den Cruyce/Vanhorebeek (2002).

12

all passengers put significant downward pressure on fares, yields, and financial
results.
Finally, in our view management hubris was a major factor in explaining both the
failure of Swissairs earlier European alliances, including the abandoned Alcazar project, and the demise of Qualiflyer. Each time, Swissair, ignoring its tiny homemarket,
the unfavorable location and limited growth potential of its Zurich hub, and
Switzerlands exclusion from the EU aviation market, nevertheless demanded to take on
the role of the respective alliances undisputed leader a stance, as history has
repeatedly shown, not tolerated by its partners for too long. Given this prevalent attitude
both among the companys board and its top management, it is not surprising, however,
that the more sensible alternative to secure the carriers long-term survival to join one
of the big three alliances as a major feeder never was seriously considered as a vital
strategic option.

Table 6: Profits/(losses) from associated undertakings (in million CHF)

1999
35
(104)
(31)
(167)
(134)
n/a
n/a
20
(401)

Sabena
AOM
Air Littoral
LTU (Charter)
Volare Group (Charter)
South African Airways
LOT
Cargolux (Cargo)
Total for SAirLines companies

2000
(51)
(237)
(3)
(498)
(30)
16
7
12
(796)

Source: SAirGroup (the holding company) (2001: 18).

Swissair vs. Crossair: Competition Instead of Cooperation and Integration

Crossair was founded in Basle on November 28th, 1978, by Moritz Suter, a Swissair
pilot.22 From 1982, the regional carrier, aside from building its own network from its
Basle hub, began serving some thinner routes on behalf of Swissair. In 1988 Swissair
acquired a minority stake of 41 per cent of the voting rights in the Crossair a voting
majority for Swissair resulted in 1991 , which had exhausted most of its resources
during its expansion. As a result, more and more routes were transferred to Crossair,
enabling it to realize a load factor of 53 per cent (as opposed to only 40 per cent without
the feed traffic). In 1998, in parallel with but operationally unrelated to Swissairs
Hunter strategy Crossair by then by far the largest regional airline in Europe
began to implement its Eurocross strategy, by rapidly adding a significant number of

22

See Lchinger (2001: 102ff.).

13

aircraft to its fleet to build its Basle base into a large-scale regional hub airport, serving
71 European destinations in 2000 (up from 39 Crossair destinations in 1990).
In our view, the SAirGroups top managements failure to coordinate the operations of
its regional feeder Crossair of which it owned 70 per cent in fall 2001 effectively
with Swissairs own was the second key factor in the latters demise. The inefficiency
of the SAirGroups two-hub-strategy in Switzerland cannot only be shown theoretically,
using the economic theory of networks.23 Unlike all its main competitors (Lufthansa,
Austrian Airlines, British Airways etc.), that succeeded to do so, Swissair, however,
allowed Crossair a largely stand-alone operation in general as regards maintenance,
sales and marketing, ground handling, IT, to name just a few areas and to establish a
geographically separate hub at its Basle homebase in particular. If anything, this cannibalization on the small Swiss homemarket only resulted in much lower load factors and
revenues (yields) for both carriers due to their failure to fully exploit the potential
economies of density and large scale of a joint operation.

Contributing Factors
Despite all the shortcomings of Swissairs ultimately disastrous strategy described in the
preceding chapters, we doubt that it would have been possible for the company to pursue it for so long if some contributing factors had not come into play. Of particular importance were:

The negative outcome of the 1992 referendum on Switzerlands accession to the

European Economic Area which, as already discussed in more detail above, at
least indirectly led to the ill-advised hunter strategy.

The Swiss governments long-standing protectionist aviation policy for the

benefit of its flag carrier Swissair not only enabled the latter to expand into a
size not warranted by its rather small homemarket. Lufthansa German airlines
long-range fleet, for example, was only slightly more than twice as large as
Swissairs before its collapse with the German carriers homemarket of 80
mio. being more than 11 times bigger than Swissairs national catchment area.24
Moreover, it is highly likely that both Swissairs hubris and hence its illconceived alliance strategy would not have stood the market test for long in a
fully liberalized aviation market25 Lchinger26 argued that with the financial
resources spent, or rather wasted on Qualiflyer, Swissair would have been able
to acquire a 20 per cent stake in British Airways (before 9/11) alternatively,
thereby having established itself firmly in a much more competitive and
promising alliance.

23

For details see Wojahn (2001).

24

See Moser (2001: 155).

25

See Schweizer konomieprofessoren (2001); Frey (2001).

26

See Lchinger (2001: 199).

14

Uncritical media coverage: Until the mid-1990ies all Swiss journalists obtained
a discount of 25 per cent for all their intercontinental and of 50 per cent for all
their intraEuropean travel on Swissair regardless of whether the trip had a
professional or private background, and subject to no restrictions whatsoever.
While Swissair did not discriminate amongst beneficiaries on the basis of their
actual coverage of the company critical or uncritical , this long-standing
policy, to say the least, created strong incentives for most Swiss journalists to
exclusively rely upon Swissair for all their travel needs. Aside from a rather
tame coverage of the SAirGroups strategy in general at least, if compared to
the media reports on airlines in most EU countries or in the USA this
ignorance of the quality standards of other airlines, however, may have led many
of them to wrongly believe that Swissair was still as invulnerable to
competitive threats from other airlines as it used to be in its much more successful earlier years.

Outlook
On March 31st, 2002, after several months of intense behind-the-scenes-negotiations between the Swiss government and the countrys major companies to determine its size,
structure and strategy, and helped by a huge financial start-up package, the SAirGroups
commercial though not legal successor SWISS began operations as Switzerlands
new flag carrier. Built around the Crossair nucleus which immediately before the
Nachlassstundung was taken over by two major Swiss banks and its fleet of (then) 82
regional aircraft), it was complemented by 26 of Swissairs long-range and 26 mediumrange aircraft as well as the corresponding number of intraEuropean and
intercontinental routes (the so-called 26/26/82-formula). As its two predecessors, it has
tried ever since to position itself in the premium segment.
Today, only 16 months later, SWISS, too, is on the verge of collapse. Not only did both
its fleet and its route network turn out to be substantially oversized, resulting in a total
loss of slightly less than Sfr. 1 bn. ( 650 mio.) including an operating loss to the
order of Sfr. 658 mio. for its first full year in business.27 After some earlier cutbacks
when about one tenth of the fleet was grounded and ten percent of the staff were laid off
proved fruitless, Andr Dos, SWISS CEO, announced a massive downsizing at the
end of June 2003. Both the number of aircraft in service and the workforce will be cut
by one third, and the number of destinations served will be reduced by one fourth.28
Finally, despite a strong management commitment to join, SWISS has so far been
shunned by the major airlines alliances.
Being, in short, just a slightly shrunk version of Swissair, SWISS ongoing troubles do
not come as a surprise, however. Moreover, the former Swissair staff taken over by the
new company have been extremely reluctant to accept wage cuts to align their pay with
the much lower wages of their former Crossair colleagues. A two-tier wage structure
27

See Neue Zrcher Zeitung (2003a).

28

See Flottau (2003); Neue Zrcher Zeitung (2003b).

15

and tense labor relations are the result. Finally, SWISS decision to focus on the highyield segment of the market although understandable given the companys cost
structure will very likely prove unsustainable in the face of the growing number of
low-fare no-frills carriers it has to compete with head-to-head on the Swiss market
(easyJet, Germanwings, Air Berlin) even for business travelers which have become
much more price-sensitive in the past few years. SWISS future looks bleak indeed.

16

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Dynamische Mrkte in der Weltwirtschaft und internationale
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Das Unternehmen Stadt im Wettbewerb: Zur Notwendigkeit einer konsistenten
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Technology Policy for a future-oriented Social Market Economy in Russia, 1995.
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Kottisch, Andreas/Meyer, Ralf:
Das Unternehmen als soziales System: Zur Notwendigkeit einer ganzheitlichen
Betrachtungsweise, 1995. 52 S.

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Geschftspartner VR China: Chancen und Risiken fr den Handels- und
Investitionserfolg der deutschen Industrie - Extrakt der IV.
Jahreswirtschaftstagung des Instituts fr Weltwirtschaft und Internationales
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Investition und Finanzierung unter besonderer Bercksichtigung der Planung
und Bewertung von Projekten (in Russisch), 1996. 186 S.
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Meyer. Ralf/Vosding, Henriette:
Die Analyse der touristischen Nachfrage fr Bremen (Stadt), 1997. 76 S.
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Wiegand, Maren/Wohlmuth, Karl:
Bremen im nationalen und internationalen Standortwettbewerb Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektiven - Zentrale Thesen der Referenten bei der
V. Jahreswirtschaftstagung des Instituts fr Weltwirtschaft und Internationales
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Formen der Internationalisierung wirtschaftlicher Aktivitten, 1998. 116 S.
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Standortmarketing als Element einer ganzheitlichen Stadtmarketing-Konzeption
- Eine Bewertung des Wirtschaftsstandortes Bremen durch ansssige
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Strukturwandel und standortpolitischer Handlungsbedarf im Land Bremen,
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Das Auenwirtschaftskonzept der Freien Hansestadt Bremen. Zielsetzungen
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Innovation als Schlsselfaktor eines erfolgreichen Wirtschaftsstandortes
nationale und regionale Innovationssysteme im globalen Wettbewerb, 1999.
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Die Wohlfahrtskonomie von Amartya Sen und ihr Einflu auf die Messung von
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"Der Drei-Schluchten-Staudamm in der VR China - Hintergrnde, KostenNutzen-Analyse und Durchfhrbarkeitsstudie eines grossen Projektes unter
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Meyer-Ramien, Arne:
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