It seems that SwissAir is bankrupt, according to their web page. But I’m confused because there still appears to be an international Swiss airline of some sort. Red cross logo and everything. This airline currently has a big display at Grand Central Terminal in NY, and searching Expedia will give me flights booked on it. But I can’t figure out what airline it is. A reincarnation of SwissAir maybe?
Does anyone know what this airline is?
SwissAir went bankrupt. A new airline, simply called Swiss, was largely formed from the wreckage.
As flodnak says, Swiss is an entirely separate airline, since SwissAir Group went into liquidation and ceased operations by 31 March 2002 (the last flight was on 27 March).
Swiss is a brand used by Crossair, which (confusingly) was originally part of SwissAir’s SAirLines subsidiary. UBS and Credit Suisse bought SwissAir’s 70% shareholding in Crossair, including an option to purchase the SwissAir (valued in 2001 at CHF660m). SwissAir Group was not pleased at Crossair’s rebranding:
Swissair’s bankruptcy also played a large role in the death of Belgium’s Sabena, with whom it had a close partnership. Sabena is similarly defunct (and missed by few), but has similarly been largely replaced by an airline called SN Brussels (SN was Sabena’s IATA code). SN Brussels was founded from Sabena’s wreckage, not from a pre-existing airline which acquired the assets like Crossair acquired Swissair’s.