The Swiss government ruled out fresh funds for Swiss International Air Lines, joining a list of wary creditors as pressure mounts on the carrier to cut losses.
Swiss said this week key creditors cut off a 400 million franc ($293 million) credit line and its biggest private shareholders Credit Suisse and UBS were cool on providing fresh funds.
“Entrepreneurial measures are necessary and not further subsidies,” finance ministry spokesman Daniel Eckmann told Reuters. “Swiss can only find its place in the difficult worldwide airline market if it is successful and profitable.”
With its European planes barely half full, Swiss is battling to rebound from a loss of almost a billion francs last year and avert the fate of predecessor Swissair, which collapsed in 2001. “The question is, whether Swiss can find its place in a worldwide, hard-fought airline market,” Eckmann said. Swiss says while it wants to renegotiate the terminated 400 million franc medium-term facility, it has enough cash to last it through 2003.
By: theplane - 30th April 2003 at 19:01
After a rather heated debated, today was the day that the swiss federal council decided not to give SWISS anything… but no, they didnt keep the same management…the crossair management stepped in from the swissair one….and crossair WAS a fairly profitable airline…now we’ll just wait and see what happens…either way, they better last till Mid-July, ’cause that’s about when they should be moving their long-haul fleet to GVA (which is one of their supposed cost-cutting measures)…
“According to the Minsiter of Transportation, The current situation in SWISS is NOT comparable to that of swissair in 2001….it is not for the state to meddle in the affairs of a private company” (taken from the Tribune de Geneve)
does this mean that the Swiss Gov’t might start a NEW Swiss??
By: Saab 2000 - 29th April 2003 at 19:38
Frank,
They do still have those same old Swissair management and look what they’ve done, built out of Crossair it is now returning to old Swissair ways. The Swiss management is just not logical thinkers and the airline will pay. As I have said and I will reiterate, they need to slim down.
By: frankvw - 29th April 2003 at 19:16
I guess they still have the same managers than in 2001… Nothing changes :rolleyes:
By: KabirT - 29th April 2003 at 19:09
What right now i am interested is in if the condition of the airline from the management part is fragile or not.
By: Saab 2000 - 29th April 2003 at 19:04
Well considering the future of an airline is at stake, is nobody interested? :confused:
By: Saab 2000 - 28th April 2003 at 18:44
As the article suggests, things do not look good for Swiss. Analysts’ give them 3 months. They have to re-size, it is entevitable if they want to survive.
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April 27, 2003 at 5:15 pm