Swiss - Desperate For The Pax??

[Chillwinston]

Cash-strapped airline Swiss, struggling to fill its planes, will offer discounted same day, out-and-back tickets to surprise European destinations, the carrier said on Tuesday.

The tickets will cost CHF88 Swiss francs (USD$68) for adults and CHF77 (USD$60) for children. However, passengers will not be able to leave the destination airport, said Swiss, which has slashed its European fares in a bid to survive.

"The new taster tickets are aimed primarily at providing a flying experience, be it for a family treat, a first flight, a birthday surprise or simply a golden wedding celebration," Swiss said in a statement.

Swiss International Air Lines has come under mounting fire in recent weeks after it posted a CHF276 million (USD$214.4 million) loss in the traditionally strong third quarter, with its no-frills European strategy yet to pay off.

Last week William Meaney, the airline's commercial director who had overseen the push to tackle budget rivals, left the flag carrier, which is still searching for a key credit line to bolster its finances during the winter.

(Reuters)

[brabazon]

I can see ITV snapping up this idea for a "family reality tv programme" or how about a surprise gift for the mother-in-law - a day trip to who knows where and you won't be able to leave the airport!! Even Ryanair haven't come up with that one yet!!

[Scottish Flyer]

This is not a new idea. KLM offered a similar deal some years ago out of Amsterdam.

[Buster the Bear]

SWISS must be really in the $hite to offer this!

Now let us go back a few years, would Swissair have offered the same?

A business in decline?

[Chillwinston]

Scottish Flyer - Did it improve KLM's traffic figures / profit?

Buster the Bear - my comments exactly when I read the article, talk about scraping the barrel, what next buy other EU airlines, over stretch financially or is that why there in this mess in the 1st place.

Do hope Swiss can turn it around but surely "zee Germans" are hovering to pick over the bones if they dont

[ettore]

Looking at the way things are being done and undone at Swiss, I'm not really sure that its Board and management are willing to turnaround the company.

It looks pretty much as if they are forcing it down on the knies, so it can be eventually sold at a bargain price.

I'd bet any keyplayer in the European airline business would be ready to threw a couple of hundred million Swiss francs to grab a still significant part of the market in Switzerland.

At last, the Swiss (people) would eventually be relieved of the burden of keeping a national carrier flying.

If you look at it from the point of view of Airbus, ILFC, Banks and other major creditors of the former SAirGroup, it also makes sense:
A. - First transfer as many assets and business as possible from Swissair to SWISS (Crossair shares, leasing contracts and so on): those assets retain a considerable value in comparaison to their liquidation value,
B. - Sell all related businesses (Gate Gourmet, Swissport, SR Technics and so on) to reduce the burden of the debt in the remaining companies which filed for bankruptcy,
C. - Since the transfer of huge assets from Swissair to SWISS led to an overweighted airline, reduce it, one jobcut after the other, as far as politically and socialy acceptable,
D. - Sell the remains when schrunk to a bearable size.

The final result over two to four years is a considerable reduction of your financial and commercial exposure in an airline that had no other option but to file for bankruptcy.

In the meantime, many of those who mismanaged Swissair up to grounding its entire fleet found a new job with SWISS, making them the happy beneficiaires of the most expensive occupation programm for virtually jobless people. The longer it works the better: their track record is only geting worse day by day.