Switzerland's top airline, after being one of the hunters during the 1990s, succumbed to upheaval in the European air travel market last week to become the prey of German carrier Lufthansa
Published:
28 March 2005 y., Monday
Switzerland's top airline, after being one of the hunters during the 1990s, succumbed to upheaval in the European air travel market last week to become the prey of German carrier Lufthansa.
Switzerland's top airline, after being one of the hunters during the 1990s, succumbed to upheaval in the European air travel market last week to become the prey of German carrier Lufthansa.
That followed the collapse of merger talks with Dutch airline KLM -- now owned by Air France -- with Scandinavian SAS and Austrian Airlines in 1993, and an aggressive alliance strategy that tied in with the now ailing US Delta Airlines.
Before its expansion, Swissair was valued at about 4.3 billion Swiss francs (three billion dollars then).
"The mistake was for Swiss to go for this policy of taking minority shareholdings in AOM and in Sabena, where it didn't have control over the operations or cashflow," said Nick van den Brul, an analyst at BNP Paribas.
Switzerland's airline was partly hampered by being outside the European Union and not being allowed by EU rules to take a controlling stake in its prey at the time.
Swissair expansion was also largely funded by debt, helping to drive the group into bankruptcy in October 2001.
It was reincarnated under the name Swiss and took over Swissair's knowhow, visual identity, staff, infrastructure, flight slots and airliners with the help of about three billion Swiss francs in public and private investment.
But the new offspring was immediately battered by low-cost carriers driving down fares in Europe, a slump in air travel and rising fuel prices. Swiss cut its fleet and staff by one-third last year.
Šaltinis:
nst.com.my
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Of the 10 new members that joined the European Union in May 2004, the majority of the eight former communist bloc countries plan tight budgets for 2005
more »
Mikhail Fradkov, Russia’s Prime Minister, has stunned the business community by saying his country's secret service must spy on large corporations to guarantee economic growth
more »
Moldovan industrial production advanced 6.4 percent in 2004 to USD1.415bn, the Statistics and Sociology Department of the republic announced
more »
Lithuania has the lowest inflation rate among the Baltic States
more »
Bulgaria's First Investment Bank issued EUR 200 M of bonds with a three-year maturity in a sale managed by ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinword Wasserstein
more »
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said he will lead a new effort to prosecute and prevent money laundering in the Baltic state to avoid international sanctions against the country's banks
more »
Seminar on development of non-cash settlements with use of plastic cards in Uzbekistan
more »
A 40-member Azerbaijani business delegation is scheduled to leave for Rome to attend an Italy-Azerbaijan conference on investments due on February 25
more »
Latvia, the European Union's fastest growing economy, is ready to link its currency to the euro in a two-year test period prior to adopting Europe's common currency
more »
Koizumi says Japan's economy recovering, vows to fight deflation
more »