Moritz Suter - Hello

[Interconti]

I hear Moritz Suter, founder of Crossair, solely funded start- up charter airline HELLO.

Apparently the managment team consists of Markus Seiler former CEO of TEA Switzerland, Helios, Swisswings. Furthermore he was supposed to get Air Switzerland and Alpstein Air airborne, both never took- off.....

The airline tries to get airborne this summer with 3 MD90.

Anyone more infos....?

[Few Cloudy]

They only need Bruggiser and they have the whole flight Mafia in there...

[Interconti]

Just receive the news that Hugo Wermelinger, former Vice President Charter at Crossair/ SWISS International Airlines, is nominated as Head of Sales/ Commercial.

Indeed the whole Mafia :{ :{ :{ :ugh: :\

I am sure SWISS is not very happy about these developments .....

Furthermore I hear ex SR pilots are not welcome .....

[RASTAMIKE]

and we forgot André Dosé to complete the crew, and may be also Mr Auer to draft the ops manual, so this new company will be able to fly to Lugano with the MD90 :=

[middlepath]

I think Hellow might do quite well if it sticks to its earlier philosophy of cross air, stay small and stick with efficient turboprop remain within short haul to begin with but operate from many points of CH. Name should reflect some swissness though. good luck Hello. plenty ex lx pilots in the market.

[Voeni]

"earlier philosophy of cross air, stay small"

the current SWISS still has problems to cancel the 90 Embraer's (the new ones) Moritz Suter ordered...

As with Crossair, guess the crew will be classified as "working poor" (someone who works 100% but is not able to get enough money to achieve the smallest living standards...)

I really doubt if this works... 3 MD90? Where do they wanna fly to?

[FlyMD]

From what I've read in the newspapers, it is to be a "classic charter airline", which for Switzerland means holiday destinations like the Canary islands, Egypt, Baleares etc...

Although the competition is already though in this market (Edelweiss, Belair, Helvetic, Germania...), it's not that difficult to make a living, provided your costs are lower than the other competitors:

- MD90 are offered at VERY advantageous leasing rates, and are ideal for the aforementioned segments.
- MD90 is basically the same rating as MD80 series, and as somebody mentioned in this post before, a lot of ex-crossair pilots are available for shameless exploiting
- Moritz Suter is the undisputed king of "fly now, pay later", meaning he is able to extort fantastic rebates in taxes, landing fees etc.. from Swiss airports (he's done it numerous times with GVA, BSL, LUG).
- Once bought, Swiss politicians generally stay bought, and Moritz Suter has acquired quite a few over the years, so getting an AOC and so on should not be a problem.
- Lastly, I strongly suspect that Hello already has some potent secret partners in the travel business, most probably German tour operators who would like to put Kuoni and Hotelplan in their place.

An interesting venture for almost everybody, except for flight crew, who will probably have to set new records on the low pay/high workload scale...

[middlepath]

for the size of the country and geographical location there are too many airlines within and around CH. The only way to survive may be start small and remain within European or Eastern European routes utilizing cheapest aircraft available. From the begining it was a mistake to order EMB 145 fited with HUGs and irs,costing millions and used rarely in cat III inviroment. It was not cost effective at all investing in equipments which is seldome used. Learning process never ends, keep on going, only reason we need more airlines is to keep all idle pilots flying in ch.

[ettore]

only reason we need more airlines is to keep all idle pilots flying in ch

Not really, Middlepath. Pilots residing in Switzerland would also get jobs, enjoy much more employment stability and cost far less to the Swiss tax payers if the so-called "national carrier" could eventually rely on, merge with or be swallowed by a Major, such as BA, LH or even AA (if the Yanks ever feel interested in getting a return on what they invested in the SAirGroup some years ago...).

The present situation is absurd: Swiss has burned 2 Bn Swiss Francs in 2 1/2 years (SR Credit line from grounding to March '02 included), prohibits any serious contender on the market thanks to the heavy subsidies it is burning day after day (1,3 Million CHF a day in 2003) and everybody on board is shivering in fear of the next grounding!

Look at what the Belgian did, once Mario Corti's Swissair Group dumped them in 2001. They sent Sabena in bankruptcy, rescued her small regional DAT operation with a couple hundred millions euros, kept 1'900 people busy (only) and added to the continental network the few long-haul destination which are really profitable. What happened to them? In less than two years, they were not loosing, but earning money and managed to make themselves fit and sexy enough to be bought by Sir Richard Branson... This, in a country with far less high-yield pax as Switzerland.

The Swiss (and Swiss pilots) should stop thinking Swiss and face the reality of the market if they want to develop a sustainable airline business in their own country.

[airmen]

The Swiss (and Swiss pilots) should stop thinking Swiss and face the reality of the market if they want to develop a sustainable airline business in their own country.
I agree with you but the MAFIA gang is powerful and they will not tolerate any of these until the cow has no more milk...:yuk:
What a pitty

[middlepath]

swiss management is claiming there is enough milk to keep flying.But dont know how long!

[ettore]

Swiss CFO Svensson earns a million Swiss francs a year, compared to 200'000 francs for his predecessor Thomas Hoffmann.

This year the Board decided to pay the top management 40% of their bonuses in spite of 1,6 Billion Swiss francs losses they cumulated in the past two years. Last year, according to the official figures, the airline lost 1,3 millions Swiss francs A DAY! And former SR pilots are still costing to Swiss 70% more than the regional pilots of the former Crossair...

Never mind. The tax payers will pay again and again to keep this lobby afloat :yuk:

[middlepath]

Is capt Dose joining MS and Hallo company yet?

[Interconti]

middlepath

It seems the previous lx executive management is not welcome at HELLO. Except Franz Meyer who was for many years in charge of technical operations at Crossair and is now in charge of Flight Operations.

Bjoern Naef or "Timy" was definitely turned down by Moritz.

And others like Thomas Brandt, Dose and co. face criminal charges because of two crashes.... Guess makes em unemployable for any postholder job under JAR. :confused: :hmm:

[blue belly]

Moritz should also be called in to face the music!

[middlepath]

Be Kind,leave the old man in peace.

[gofer]

Seems to me that MD90's are possibly a tad toooooooo big.

Even Easy and the 319's are almost oversized for Basel if one wanted to return to a very profitable EuroCross idea.

For me a fleet with a mixture of:
- 30-35 seaters, ramped up to 50 seaters and followed on with 70-85 seaters
- 50 seaters that ramp up to 70-85 seaters
- 70-85 seaters that ramp up to the bigger guys is the way to encourage SLF to fly

Provide good timetables for business with "SERVICE" and acceptable comfort at a medium price and discount the seats that you otherwise can't sell with a no-frills offer.

Sell a very wide range of Duty free that can be ordered on-board and that are NOT transported - but delivered at the gate on arrival at destination - and that are delivered to an address for the more bulky items (do a deal with DHL or the like) !:hmm:

[ettore]

Blue Belly wrote :

Moritz should also be called in to face the music!
Indeed. He is the one who orchestrated the fly or starve policy at CRX