View Full Version : SWISSAIR Pilots and Crews in anger
ettore
4th Dec 2003, 03:22
Around 300 Swiss pilots of the long-haul network (former Swissair pilots) and Cabin crew met last monday to voice their anger and fear at the desolate state of Swiss int'l Airline. :mad:
Anger at the fact that after a wave of 2'700 dismissals in the lower ranks of the hierarchy, the direction has not yet decided where to cut 300 jobs at management level. :*
Fear at the fact that a desperately sought credit facility of around 500 million swiss francs has not yet materialized, inspite of CEO Andre Dose repeated assertions it would be "soon" available. :sad:
The unions Aeropers and Kapers decided on monday to collect signatures to make their point clear. :ok:
On Tuesday, Swiss President Pieter Bouw and CEO Dose met with the unions and decided that nothing should be said to anyone. The petition has been immediately called off. All parties are said to be now "in a process to shape the required confidence to achieve the turnaround"... :ugh:
Good luck, boys! :8
finalschecks
4th Dec 2003, 21:12
Managment has made several promises and set some deadlines about this line of credit. No money has been found until now.
The ministry of disinformation is the only department in Swiss that is still up and running 100%.
SWISSAIR crews may be "angry" but imagine how the couple of hundred fired flight attendants and pilots of crossair feel !
Robert Vesco
4th Dec 2003, 22:32
Yep, still no money, despite André´s wishful thinking. Last I heard was that the 500 Million Sfr loan would have been secured before the end of November.
Well, obviously Santa Claus is still stuck in a holding pattern somewhere over EKRIT or RILAX without an EAT... :rolleyes:
DoItInverted
4th Dec 2003, 23:11
Hi all!
SWISSAIR crews may be "angry" but imagine how the couple of hundred fired flight attendants and pilots of crossair feel !
They might be waiting for the next grounding..
Or at least Dose's ass :yuk: being kicked hard!! :D
DII
Still hard to work out how decreasing the fleet by 35% and the personnel by 30% (not necessarily the correct 30%) improves profitabililty.
Improving profitabililty is very simple. You have to have less people, material (aircraft, spares, etc.), buildings and/or pay your suppliers less. Yes, you can also trick about with one-time accounting changes.
If Swiss still has a 2-300 million annual profit issue (The real number may much larger, as 0 is not an acceptable profit), what remains to be done with this "rule of 4" is vers substantial indeed. There is no history in business of anyone "growing their way" out of a profitability problem.
Momo
ettore
5th Dec 2003, 21:29
Back to the basics, one will note that the average yield (revenue pax per kilometer) in 2002 was 0.1622 CHF.
It felt to 0.14 CHF at the beginning of this year and lies now under 0.12 CHF, despite several so-called "cost-saving" restructurations.
From April-June to July-Sept, SLF improved from 69.6 % to 77,5 % (+10.1%) but the average revenue per pax felt from 308 CHF to 262 CHF (- 15 %).
It means that Swiss is losing always more money in its core business instead of improving its results.
Add to it around 200 million CHF for the restructuring cost and there might very well be very little left at the end of year to run the day-to-day business.
They might be hoping a miracle for X-Mas.
N380UA
5th Dec 2003, 22:23
My feeling on this, is that Swiss will be pooped out the earliest by the end of this year, the latest by Feb. next year. It seems to me that the management rescues the finances over form one month to the other, always hoping it’ll just clear.
It also may a strategy to let the company go bust again? Although nobody would be willing to pump up any more money.
I’m sorry to be so negative on it, for all of you ex’s that ought to get compensations and all those jobs that are in jeopardy (again).
LeadingEdge
5th Dec 2003, 22:28
You are all terribly wrong.Swiss will spread its wings and soar through the skies of the world..it is only the bad crossair part of this company that looses money.
The miracle will be the government that,again,will pump lots of money into a braindead patient...
Sadly much of this pressure on Euroland Airlines has been brought about by their own high costs and continued US restrictions. As many others within Euro know continued cuts in service and LC competition will cause further problems and I cannot see how Swiss is any more likely to get credit than anyone else. I wish all at Swiss the best but bear in mind many of us other Euros will sigh with limited relief if you fail.
ettore
6th Dec 2003, 21:14
SLF in Europe should be 7 to 8 pnts above thoses in November 2002 and compensate for the lower revenue since the new pricing «Swiss in Europe» was implemented. But LX is still loosing money on its continental network.
November is also the first month which will allow to see how much the airline won on selling food and drinks in the back rows. No idea whether its significant or not.
Trafic figures should be made officialy available on Monday.
Regarding the halt to the «Wake-up call for CEO Andre Dose» by Swiss Unions, their main concern is the risk of further damages to the reputation of the airline, as it is still struggling for a credit facility. They all agree that Dose is the worth horse they could ever bet on for a turnaround, but fear that his dismissal would jeopardize the little chances left for a rescue from the banks.
In turn, it seems that the bank are not willing to invest one more penny in the airline, as long as pending litigations on the transfer of assets and liabilities from the former SAirGroup to the new Swiss are not resolved, or at least as long as the threat of further litigation, including criminal proceedings, is not banned.
Ergo, Swiss might be long in bankruptcy before the banks feel ready for a credit...
N380UA
8th Dec 2003, 18:27
November is also the first month which will allow to see how much the airline won on selling food and drinks in the back rows. No idea whether its significant or not.
There is no significance here as it’s just a cost saving measurement and not intended to increase revenue as such. :ooh:
At the end of it all it seems as though Swiss is in a catch 22, damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
If Dose leaves now it will break Swiss, as investors will see that action as “the rats are leaving the sinking ship”. With the final report of the Corsair S340 accident being out and blaming the flight crew more legal charges should be expected, not to mention the 2001 crash with an apparently drugged up pilot and Ed Faghen representing the case.
:yuk:
No clue how far the SAir Group still has money to be transferred to Swiss. Anyone got an idea?
ettore
8th Dec 2003, 19:18
No clue how far the SAir Group still has money to be transferred to Swiss. Anyone got an idea?
It is the other way around: assets (and liabilities) were transferred from SAirGroup to Swiss but the assets are preempted due to a number of litigations still pending in the SAirGroup liquidation process. It means that Swiss cannot use those assets as securities for a credit facility.
If you look at the book value of the fleet, you would think Swiss can take it easy (more than 2 Billion Swiss Francs).
But most, if not all, of this book value on the asset side lies with leased aircrafts, a) which are not owned by Swiss (she would if she pays them all, which would take in some cases up to 12 years...), b) which were to a large extend inherited from former agreements with lessors (ILFC, Gecas, German and Japanese leasings + FlightLease and Airbus): those are the very contracts which are now under scrutiny in the SAirGroup litigation process (in Switzerland and in Holland, where SAirGroup had its main financing entities to draw money on the bond market), and under scrutiny in the criminal investigations in Switzerland and in Belgium.
The lessors are therefore in a very unconfortable situation: either they ask for full payment of the regular mortgage Swiss is supposed to pay them and Swiss will die soon because she has not enough money to fulfill her commitments and no garantee to get a revolving credit facility; or they make some concession, allowing the company to survive, but get less money paid. The problem is that they do not know how long it will last because they have no real control over her other costs (loans, maintenance, catering, handling, taxes and so on)...
The leasing financing community has been so upset by the way the Swiss government and the Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS defraud them in the transfer of assets and liabilities from SAirGroup to Swiss (instead of liquidating SAirGroup and paying for its liabilities, to start with a new Swiss airline on a clean basis), that there is barely one international banker who is willing to invest one more penny in Swiss.
The very result is that creditors and lessors are simply watching Swiss dying, trying to adjust their losses to the path of her agony. A brutal end would mean a greater loss than keeping the company flying, until the next turbulence (SARS, terrorist attack, whatsover) makes it too costly (Swiss would then go under admnistration) or dries up the last hundred million Swiss might be keeping in cash as it happens, which would lead to another grounding.
Knowing that no one will allow Swiss to be grounded, the question is now when Swiss will go under admnistration.