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Why is Swissair in a Climb?
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Few airlines these days manage to break even, fewer still actually produce a net profit. It hardly matters whether the airline is a short-haul commuter or a large international operator. Falling passenger demand, and thus overcapacity, high interest rates and rapidly increasing operating costs have brought the world’s best operators to their knees.
In this mire of gloom and doom then why is it that one of the world’s smallest nations can lay claim to not only one of the biggest international airlines but also one that has had only two deficit years since 1950. The country of course is Switzerland and the airline is Swissair.
Swissair grew from the merger of Balair and Ad Astra in March 1931, Those weren’t great days in which to pioneer a national air yet through the turbulent thirties Swissair grew through a policy of management and the latest available equipment such as the DC-2 and DC-3. The War years were spent largely keeping liaison channels open in Switzerland itself in support of the neutral Swiss Army. Following the cessation of hostilities, Switzerland found itself one of the few nations in Europe that were still economically intact. The development of air services was hastened as new trading frontiers emerged worldwide. The fleet grew from the DC-4/DC-68 through to the DC-7C and into the jet age with the first Convair880 and 990 Coronado aircraft. Ironically neither of these two aircraft, which at first promised so much, were to prove successful due to their inability to meet the range requirements promised by the manµfacturer. The early sixties also saw the introduction of the Avon-powered Caravelle and the Douglas DC-8 which was tasked solely for North Atlantic operations. Swissair grew rapidly as the world realised the potential of jet air travel, Caravelles gave way to DC-9s and DC-8s were in turn replaced by later variants of the same marque. The seventies saw the introduction of the Boeing 747 and the DC-10 trijet while today Swissair pioneers airline developments as the inaugural operator of the DC-8 Super 80, DC-10ER, the Boeing 747-300 and the Airbus A310.
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