Why should this airline be added?
Founded in November 1998, Swissair Express was a short-lived brand introduced by Swissair to compete with low-cost carriers. Swissair Express had launched wet-lease services operated by the UK-based carrier Debonair using British Aerospace 146-200 aircraft on routes between Zurich, Venice, and Bologna, which were codeshared with Air One. Swissair Express would operate European routes up until October 2001, the Swissair Group had collapsed and grounded its fleet due to bankruptcy caused by massive debt.
I wonder why they decided these were something they needed to do when they had Crossair handling all their regional business flights. Would be a cool bonus B463 for ZRH.
Maybe one of many reasons for Swissair Group’s untimely demise, along with Swissair accumulating massive debts by acquiring stakes in multiple unprofitable airlines to form the Qualiflyer Group.
The Qualiflyer Group was a great idea but it was the same as putting a quality sticker to validate a brand new patio deck just for it to be rotten underneath. Sabena was in a hell of a state when they took them on and even though Swissair was scuppered itself, operating routes which hadn’t been profitable for years, it prioritised completely renewing Sabena’s fleet alongside its own, whilst the Belgian government was demanding they throw more money at Sabena which was one of the clauses of the takeover. Glad Austrian survived but it was like someone crawling out of a collapsed house lol. Madness.
Looking at the Qualiflyer group members, there were two common fates for the members.
One was the airline would cease operations and file for bankruptcy, like Air Europe, Air Liberté, Air Littoral, AOM French Airlines, Balair, Crossair, Sabena & Volareweb. LTU International would merge with Air Berlin and later cease operations, while Portugália Airlines would merge with TAP Portugal Airlines.
The second fate was members of Qualiflyers would later join established airline alliances, with most members joining Star Alliance with Austrian Airlines (March 2000), LOT Polish Airlines (October 2003), TAP Portugal Airlines (March 2005), & Turkish Airlines (April 2008), and Iberia joining oneworld in September 1999 and still being active members of the alliances.
Had no idea about Air Europe, they were originally the Italian subsidiary of the UK Air Europe which is where Air Europa began. That’s cool, been one I’ve been meaning to do a suggestion post for a while.
Airline Name
Swissair Express
Country of Origin
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
Aircraft Types Not in Game
Why should this airline be added?