The last post by studi is typical of the prevailing Swissair arrogance. Others endulge in "pathos" while we (Swissair) tell you the facts. No way, buddy. Your big picture might just be your own:
"A main part of Crossair used to be the connecting network for Swissair longhaul. There were even strong rumours that CRX only made money in wet lease flights for SR, but I guess only CRX network managers knew exactly".
That was 20% of the Crossair fleet, to be exact. The whole of the 100 seat segment was outsourced by the SAirGroup from Swissair to Crossair, because Swissair could not make any money at all on those flights. As far as rumours go, it is also a strong held belief, that SAirGroup and Swissair at that time only worked, because Crossair was contributing what it did.
"CRX was not treated accordingly. Network reductions didn't take place. So the Swiss regional network still had the size to suit old SR longhaul network, therefore it was way too big. This oversize is now corrected".
The rest of the Crossair network was point to point flights, charters and an own hub in Basle. As Swissair collapsed and Swiss was built up, the Basle hub was shut down as traffic now concentrated in routing through the Zurich hub. On top of that, add another 27 short haul Swissair Airbusses and, of course, you are then left with too many airplanes. Nobody is contesting this. And the long haul fleet is a separarate story anyway: The fleet was inflated by the failed Hunter Strategy. Today, even with the 27 planes left over, it is way oversized and is draining money in big tubes out of the company. That's were the resizing should take place first.
"I feel sorry for every dismissed pilot, but please don't whine about elitist SR pilots, they paid their price already in 2001, now it's up to you because your network is affected".
The price mentioned consisted of retiring older pilots who already had their coffers (speak pensions) filled with millions. Of those laid off, 3/4 are back in a job and the rest got a job in Swiss. On top of that, the Swissair pilots (also those who have a job in Swiss today) pulled nearly 130 Mio out of liquidated Swissair in salary demands, while a booted baggage handler doesen't know how to feed his kids. Has Crossair been liquidated, did any Crossair pilot get anything in that manner? No, because Swiss is Crossair. It's very interesting to note that in good times, the Swissair pilots never wanted to close ranks between the pilot groups, although the benefits would have been huge. In a slight alteration of the saying "if you can't beat them, join them", the Swissair pilots used "if you can't beat them, try harder and use a club". In good times, the Crossair "colleagues" were kept out, but now as the times are not so rosy, you want them to contribute equally for the errors of Swissair. That's cynical.
So don't be surprised if you're not exactly loved.