Swiss Int'l Airline about to cut another 1000 jobs/Press reports
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Arroyo
Posts: 262
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Swiss Int'l Airline about to cut another 1000 jobs/Press reports
According to the Basler Zeitung and further reports, Swiss Int'l Airline (formely Swissair) is about to fire another 1'000 people and cut again in its fleet and network.
H1 results are to be announced on August 17th. By that time, pilots and other employees should know if it is true.
Another report of the Basler Zeitung says that the Federal Office for civil aviation has been proactive in bringing SR Technics and Swiss at a negociation table on cutting maintenance costs, but that no result has been reached yet.
The Federal Office is responsible for suspending an airline licence, when its cash reserve would not allow it to fly its programm, pay the staff and bills during three months without incomes.
Those are the latest news in a serie of very worrying signs about Swiss future. As for today, more than 7'000 jobs are at stake (6'500 FTE), not to account with all related business.
H1 results are to be announced on August 17th. By that time, pilots and other employees should know if it is true.
Another report of the Basler Zeitung says that the Federal Office for civil aviation has been proactive in bringing SR Technics and Swiss at a negociation table on cutting maintenance costs, but that no result has been reached yet.
The Federal Office is responsible for suspending an airline licence, when its cash reserve would not allow it to fly its programm, pay the staff and bills during three months without incomes.
Those are the latest news in a serie of very worrying signs about Swiss future. As for today, more than 7'000 jobs are at stake (6'500 FTE), not to account with all related business.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Embedded in a pocket of resistance
Posts: 269
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
)
)
)
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Arroyo
Posts: 262
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi Bob,
Get ready for the next grounding.
The deal with AOM/Air Lib & Holco flushed 68 millions CHF in Swiss cash box, but on the balance sheet it was expected to bring 105 millions.
The sale of the fuel hedging last spring brought Swiss 20 millions but increased the bill by 95 millions since then.
All in all, thanks to the French deal, Swiss has three months cash ahead, but it's losing one million a day.
A new restructuration plan will be announced on August 17th. (together with the H1 results), but Swiss doesn't know how to fund it. Lufthansa seems to have lost any interest in rescuing Swiss, because of its many pressure groups, factions, fronts and so on, but also not least because of its high costs inherited from Swissair.
Even the traditionaly good 2nd quarter did not allow Swiss to get a positive operative result (bared from all other financial burden, taxes and so on). So, get ready for a bumpy ride into the fall.
S.W.I.S.S. ? Sorry, Widows. I Sank the Ship.
Get ready for the next grounding.
The deal with AOM/Air Lib & Holco flushed 68 millions CHF in Swiss cash box, but on the balance sheet it was expected to bring 105 millions.
The sale of the fuel hedging last spring brought Swiss 20 millions but increased the bill by 95 millions since then.
All in all, thanks to the French deal, Swiss has three months cash ahead, but it's losing one million a day.
A new restructuration plan will be announced on August 17th. (together with the H1 results), but Swiss doesn't know how to fund it. Lufthansa seems to have lost any interest in rescuing Swiss, because of its many pressure groups, factions, fronts and so on, but also not least because of its high costs inherited from Swissair.
Even the traditionaly good 2nd quarter did not allow Swiss to get a positive operative result (bared from all other financial burden, taxes and so on). So, get ready for a bumpy ride into the fall.
S.W.I.S.S. ? Sorry, Widows. I Sank the Ship.
No more Swiss + Lufthansa?
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Arroyo
Posts: 262
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dear Bob,
I'm afraid that most of pprune's readers could not get the joke "Schwansa", which sounds like "tail" in some Swiss-German dialects, or a specific part of (most) men's anatomy, I wouldn't dare to name here (my mother would have forbidden it).
More seriously, the deal between LX and LH was mainly a matter of 750 millions swiss francs the main share holders should have pumped again into LX.
LH had a very thorough and accurate insight on all LX-figures and operations and it gave Andre Dose a detailed restructuration plan. He was the one who was supposed to advocate that file both at the LX-Board and in Bern, the Swiss Confederation being the main share holder. He apparently convinced nobody and didn't really try hard enough.
In the meantime, William Meaney, the former LX-CCO, did everything he could to bring about a deal with BA and oneworld, hoping to replace Dosé as a CEO. He went that far to succeed in chasing Dosé, that the concessions he made to BA made the deal to collapse six months later.
Two Board directors bear a tremendous responsability in the aborted deals (both with LX and BA): André Kudelski for all his screaming against LH and in favor of BA and Walter Bosch.
The later leaked the BA-deal to all four Swiss-German Sunday newspapers before it was even closed, to counterfight a headline published a day before by the Tages Anzeiger, saying that LX was working on a "Chapter 11" scenario. He is not even concealing the manipulation and speaks freely about it.
In doing so, Walter Bosch killed the deal with LH. The only option left was BA, which led to the stand alone situation we currently know.
Aks me about the faith of a national airline...
I'm afraid that most of pprune's readers could not get the joke "Schwansa", which sounds like "tail" in some Swiss-German dialects, or a specific part of (most) men's anatomy, I wouldn't dare to name here (my mother would have forbidden it).
More seriously, the deal between LX and LH was mainly a matter of 750 millions swiss francs the main share holders should have pumped again into LX.
LH had a very thorough and accurate insight on all LX-figures and operations and it gave Andre Dose a detailed restructuration plan. He was the one who was supposed to advocate that file both at the LX-Board and in Bern, the Swiss Confederation being the main share holder. He apparently convinced nobody and didn't really try hard enough.
In the meantime, William Meaney, the former LX-CCO, did everything he could to bring about a deal with BA and oneworld, hoping to replace Dosé as a CEO. He went that far to succeed in chasing Dosé, that the concessions he made to BA made the deal to collapse six months later.
Two Board directors bear a tremendous responsability in the aborted deals (both with LX and BA): André Kudelski for all his screaming against LH and in favor of BA and Walter Bosch.
The later leaked the BA-deal to all four Swiss-German Sunday newspapers before it was even closed, to counterfight a headline published a day before by the Tages Anzeiger, saying that LX was working on a "Chapter 11" scenario. He is not even concealing the manipulation and speaks freely about it.
In doing so, Walter Bosch killed the deal with LH. The only option left was BA, which led to the stand alone situation we currently know.
Aks me about the faith of a national airline...
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: in my house
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hoï Ettore,
So, did you read the half year result report? Still convinced about a major reduction in work force and airplanes? And what about Lufthansa?
Have you seen Swiss just got 2 more Germans in their team???
See ya,
D-71
So, did you read the half year result report? Still convinced about a major reduction in work force and airplanes? And what about Lufthansa?
Have you seen Swiss just got 2 more Germans in their team???
See ya,
D-71
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Arroyo
Posts: 262
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yes, I did. I also heard the comments made by the CEO Christoph Franz himself, explaining that Swiss has left the intensive care unit to land now in a "normal" hospital, and that a "partner" is the only way for Swiss to get her out of there.
He also stressed that Swiss is to remain a kind of "universal" carrier and that the long-haul network is to remain as it is, even if is willing to reduce de rate of transfer pax in ZRH from 65 to 60%.
In the meantime, he complained about the ZRH-hub as being one of the less efficient and most expensive in Europe.
Let's face it. We both know from the political situation, both at local and federal level, that nothing will happen to ease the problem. We also know that with such a high transfer rate on such a tiny market, Swiss expose itself not only to the high structural costs of this hub (delay, ground services and maintenance, high altitude = less payload, flight restrictions and so on), but also to painful increases in the related costs by any exceptional event (from snow up to 11/9).
On the account side, the very positive news are that Swiss got an almost operatinal break even in June for the first time since its inception. But, the very same H1 results show that the cash-drain remains high: 828'729 Swiss francs and twenty-eight cents PER DAY, to be precise.
Therefore, I'm just wondering how Swiss is going to make it, without a credit-facility, without an alliance and with always less people on board (another 850 Swiss employees lost their job since January 1st).
Last year restructuration translates into an 8% improvement of the operational result, while capacity and staff were cut by merely one third. It's a big improvement in such a short period of time, which mainly shows that Swiss was way too fat. It is in the meantime a poor result, if you consider the above mentionned proportions and face the fact that it is still not enough to stop the cash-drain.
Restructuring an airline is very demanding both in management and financial capacities. Both are lacking Swiss. Franz hopes that the June result was not a straw fire and that the improvement of Swiss cash position (thanks to the 68 millions he gets from AOM/Air Lib') will give him some handling for astep-to-step restructuring.
Last but not least, Franz is not an idiot and will first try to get his grip on power before getting really serious about further cuts. The fact that Martin Isler lost his job as a network manager shows that Franz is handling where he can. Confronting now the former Swissair lobby (ranging from the pilots to the bureaucratic idiots turning the light off at 5 PM) with a down-sizing of the long-haul fleet would be Franz suicide.
Just wait and see, and let us post again at the end of the month, to see how many of the big share holders stick by their lock-up agreement, buddy. It's gonna be very telling about the future, if all of a sudden, Swiss shares (- 85% from July 2002 to now) flock the market...
He also stressed that Swiss is to remain a kind of "universal" carrier and that the long-haul network is to remain as it is, even if is willing to reduce de rate of transfer pax in ZRH from 65 to 60%.
In the meantime, he complained about the ZRH-hub as being one of the less efficient and most expensive in Europe.
Let's face it. We both know from the political situation, both at local and federal level, that nothing will happen to ease the problem. We also know that with such a high transfer rate on such a tiny market, Swiss expose itself not only to the high structural costs of this hub (delay, ground services and maintenance, high altitude = less payload, flight restrictions and so on), but also to painful increases in the related costs by any exceptional event (from snow up to 11/9).
On the account side, the very positive news are that Swiss got an almost operatinal break even in June for the first time since its inception. But, the very same H1 results show that the cash-drain remains high: 828'729 Swiss francs and twenty-eight cents PER DAY, to be precise.
Therefore, I'm just wondering how Swiss is going to make it, without a credit-facility, without an alliance and with always less people on board (another 850 Swiss employees lost their job since January 1st).
Last year restructuration translates into an 8% improvement of the operational result, while capacity and staff were cut by merely one third. It's a big improvement in such a short period of time, which mainly shows that Swiss was way too fat. It is in the meantime a poor result, if you consider the above mentionned proportions and face the fact that it is still not enough to stop the cash-drain.
Restructuring an airline is very demanding both in management and financial capacities. Both are lacking Swiss. Franz hopes that the June result was not a straw fire and that the improvement of Swiss cash position (thanks to the 68 millions he gets from AOM/Air Lib') will give him some handling for astep-to-step restructuring.
Last but not least, Franz is not an idiot and will first try to get his grip on power before getting really serious about further cuts. The fact that Martin Isler lost his job as a network manager shows that Franz is handling where he can. Confronting now the former Swissair lobby (ranging from the pilots to the bureaucratic idiots turning the light off at 5 PM) with a down-sizing of the long-haul fleet would be Franz suicide.
Just wait and see, and let us post again at the end of the month, to see how many of the big share holders stick by their lock-up agreement, buddy. It's gonna be very telling about the future, if all of a sudden, Swiss shares (- 85% from July 2002 to now) flock the market...
Last edited by ettore; 17th Aug 2004 at 22:04.
