Swiss Air

[finomvadas]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had worked is working for SwissAir at the mo. What's it like there? Thanks

[EZSmile]

There is no such thing as SwissAir. Ever heard of bankruptcy? It's Swiss International Airlines. The reason I'm not there is that there was a European Crossair and an arrogant Swissair, now managed by Lufthansa - better, though. Lot's of people with lots of seriority waiting for their pension and complaining. I admit, they did have the golden days.

At least they are hiring 600 new CC, paid like a cashier in a supermarket, but young motivated people. They require many languages and service qualifications, to do 90 block hours and bow and scratch at that pay they must be motivated! I heard 50 % retention after 6 months...

[Mister Geezer]

Swiss buy on-board??? Perhaps in the past but not now - even if you are in 'Y' class you get a free drink and snack.

From speaking to some Swiss cabin crew, their job can be very hard work at times. 4 short sectors sectors ZRH-BCN-ZRH-BCN-ZRH on a full 321 or doing a LCY on a RJ100 with 40 odd in 'C' are tough days! However one of the Maitre de Cabines (Swiss equivalent of No1 or CSD) said he gets a good mix of short haul and long haul but perhaps that is a function of seniority and not something you get when you join??

From what I have seen, it looks like the salary does not fit the job considering the hard work and the cost of living in Switzerland!

[EZSmile]

Is it true that about 50 % of the New Entrants stay less than 6 months?

From inside the company aswell I have heard that the the people in recruitment are really not good, and that they have hired several disruptive elements. I know of other good, motivated people (already flying) who were not taken.
I think it is just an matter of time until LH purges through all layers of admin.

[EKcrew21]

Hello everyone...
I ve a question that i hope someone here will be able to give me an answer. I currently fly for BA, long haul, out of LHR, and I am thinking of applying for LX. Does anyone know the salary i can hope to get every month, and also does it take long to become long haul crew? I used to work for Swissair as Seasonal F/A, did things change a lot in the meantime?
Many thanks guys...
Happy Landings....:)

[fendant]

I think that you got some things wrong:

a) Crossair ( with the exception in one year ) never made any money, they had finally to berescued by Swissair
b) Crossair was run by the jerk Moritz Suter, whose egow as always flying at leat 30.000 ft higher than his planes
c) Crossair had a terrible safety record, as Moritz's ego stood always in front of safety training ( Nassenwil, Bassersdorf or the guy who run out of gas when he did not check the weather on the ZRH-HAM run and crash landed in East Germany.... this could fill several pages ..)
d) Cockpit Salaries ( again except those of Moritz and friends ) were so low that only pilots from Eastern Europe could be found, speaking miserable English
e) I agree Moritz S. has a high entertainment value, bad pay , but big parties for the employees where he mostly celebrated himself
f) Salaries for cabin crew were always at Migros level ! The only guy who made money out of LX was the boss.
g) His last decision to buy 80 Embraer planes was probably the nail in the coffin for Swiss. Pax hated the Embraer 146 and called it Moritzli's Angströhre ( The Fear Tub )

I am happy that Crossair is a thing of the past!

Frank

[dartagnan]

still crossair was better than Swiss Air(with a record of frs.500 millions lost/year), and better than the actual Swiss Internatiional...
I know 2 cabin crews who have left swissair, to work in miserable companies, and they are now happier.
One was working for Crossair, left to Swissair(sorry Swiss) for 1-2 years, and told me she has been discriminated cuz she was an ex-crossair. At the end, she left.

I still think the mentality at Swiss stinks and swiss people should stay away from aviation management! Don't book with Swiss if you can.

[oscarbravo]

Hi all,

I used to work for Swissair and then Swiss from 1995 to 2003. I started as things were still good and the job, eventhough tough at times, still enjoyable. I flew long haul from day one,..ZRH-BOS on the 747 as a first flight. 10 day far east rotations,...long South America rotations, etc,...
Work conditions did change a lot throughout the years.
It is true that there were tensions between LX crews and former SR but I have never witnessed any discrimination on any of the flights I worked. In all fairness, I think I can say that these tensions came from both sides. Whether they were justified or not is another matter.
I still keep in touch with many of my former colleagues and according to most of them, flying at the moment isn't what it used to be. EU-rotation have become much tougher, long haul much shorter (the best I think at the moment is a 3 night BKK trip, but I might be wrong).
I do fly LX from time to time as a pax from far east to Europe and while not being outstanding they can really be compared to most major carriers on this sector, at least in business class.
Anyone interested in working at LX,..let me know and I can get first hand info from people who still work there.

Many happy landings,

oscarbravo