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
The mission held constructive discussions with Prime Minister Emmanuel Nadingar, Finance Minister Gata Ngoulou, Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi, and other senior officials.
more »
The EBRD is helping to improve the quality of power supply and stimulate renewable sources of energy in the Caucasus with an €80 million sovereign loan to Georgia for the construction of a new high voltage transmission line - the Black Sea High Voltage line, which will interconnect Georgia and Turkey.
more »
The EBRD is helping to improve the infrastructure of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, with a €100 million loan for the construction of a new railway route bypassing the city.
more »
One of the men considered to be the founding fathers of the euro currency met MEPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday (16 March) to talk about transatlantic relations.
more »
European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht today opened a conference focused on the European Union's trade policy towards developing countries.
more »
At the beginning of the 2000s, state ownership in financial intermediation in Mexico accounted for about 20 percent of the total credit of the banking system, provided through development financial institutions and funds.
more »
Halving the number of business failures by offering individual support, doubling the number of young people who want to start their own business or raising by 500% the number of enterprising new cooperatives are just some of the projects nominated for the European Enterprise Awards 2010.
more »
The European Commission has published the fourth call for proposals for the creation and upgrade of freight transport services under the second Marco Polo programme.
more »
The European Central Bank (ECB) today announced a programme of technical cooperation with the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in collaboration with a number of euro area national central banks (NCBs).
more »
The EU disbursed today €1 billion to Romania, the second instalment of a €5 billion loan, which was agreed in May 2009 as part of a multilateral financial assistance package.
more »