Swiftair bancrupcy

[despegue]

I recently heard that Swiftair is on the verge of bankrupcy...
Can anyone confirm/deny/elaborate?

[hotelmodemetar]

According to what I have heard recently, they are in financial trouble at the moment and lots of pilots have been fired (Embraer and ATR fleet). They often sack pilots even those with a significant experience and quite high seniority while in the meantime they replace those guys by wannabe pilots willing to pay for a type rating and 500 hours free (almost) of salary.
Their ATR75s PAX version are almost never flying and this is indeed a pain for the company.
The MD82 fleet I don't really know about it, but since Spanair crashed one in Madrid last year, the Real Madrid team don't want to travel in that flying rubish anymore.

The B737 fleet seems to be going well though. Those aircraft are always flying. Lots of contracts with DHL (when the B757 is too big for some routes).

[dc9-32]

Is this Swift in Spain or Swift in UK :eek:

[Tank2Engine]

This (http://www.worldaircargoevents.com/news_detail.aspx?footer=1&news_id=1102) was on Air Cargo News.

[despegue]

They can't pay for fuel anymore in CDG and some crew did not get paid last month's salary...
It seems that the end is near...

Swift has consistently tried to undercut the prices of their competitors, up to the level that they couldn't operate the routes in a profitable way... now, it is payback time.

[hotelmodemetar]

All Swiftair aircraft are operating normally out of CDG so I guess they have enough fuel in the tanks, hence bills must be paid :)
I don't think Swiftair is going to bankrupt really. Were did you get those rumours, despegue?

[CHECHE]

I used to work for this "company" I was fired 3 months ago. What I can tell that
fuel in CDG was paid by FeDEX at least routes for them on their ramp. I guess
that some ATR fly for DHL from VIT, maybe these have some trouble,
I really don't know. I was on EMB fleet.
I am not surprised about this rumour. Maybe they are not going to end operations
but in Spain we like to say "When the river sounds it has water!!!" and the situation
until I was fired was "CRITICAL". A lot of routes lost, less cargo in the aircrafts,
everyday worst works conditions...And a lot of pressures from Ops. to fly beyond
the law or tomorrow you were going to be in the umployed line.

If you are looking for SWT look for greener pastures.

I am still umployed!!! 1400 TT (650 turbine). Anyone out there ;)

Rgds.

[lsh]

Ops girl at Paris sacked last week, no money.
Collapse of Swiftair imminent?

[hotelmodemetar]

This rumour about Swiftair's possible bankrupcy is just bull****. They are struggling like anyone else, but they are far from bankrupt. They have started a new contract in Belice with 3 ATR72s, their B737s are flying all the time, they have still lots of contracts with FedEx on the ATRs and Emb120, and they have just signed a new contract with Marsans for an MD82 to fly mainly between Barcelona and Canaries islands.

[despegue]

You forget that they've undercut all the competition's prices and operating their B737 and ATR fleets with a loss...

[Dylsexlic]

Absolutely right hotelmodemetar. Are Ish, Cheche and Despegue actually wanting the airline to fail so they can say "I told you so"? It would be an empty victory.

Many airlines are making desperate changes to try and survive. How about Aer Arann? Pay cuts and many redundancies. Their contract crews have all been terminated (they had 5 agencies recruiting for them this time last year). Futura? Finished. British Airways? 4,000 more redundancies AND pay cuts (yup - big carriers aren't immune). I could go on, but just wanted to put some perspective on this. European aviation is having a hard time.

Swiftair? Flexible workforce - hire and fire. It's partly that flexibility that allows them to quote good prices and respond quickly to market forces. Individuals may not like it and I do feel sorry for those who have lost their job, whichever company they worked for. I don't suppose the management like it much either, but just as with any company, they have to make these decisions. Business has no emotion and is nobody's friend.

Let's be realistic - there is no Job for Life in aviation and that includes Swiftair, Aer Arann and all the others. IMHO Pilots are the original (and best) mobile workforce any industry could wish to have. Willing to work under conditions that few others would tolerate, living in places that many people haven't even heard of, for a salary that doesn't reflect their hard-earned training and transportable skills like it used to.

Swiftair have recently hired a number of crew for the new contracts they have won. What purpose is served by attempting to trash an airline that still provides work, even if it has had to terminate contracts a few months back to survive? Perhaps the company would have been wound up altogether if they hadn't taken that action when they did? Should the rest of the workforce now leave the airline out of some kind of loyalty to those who have lost their job before?

Business must change to survive. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Old cliches perhaps, but true nonetheless.

[dilmon]

Yes, correct. But how low can we go. Where is the limit on how far any one can go to keep working. Soon we will sleep in the AC, working 24/24 to undercut prices. Management will be hapy, they will make the money. Swiftair crews are using the DHL crew sleeping facilities on the airport in Leipzig to take there full rest, because the are based somewhere without hotel allowances. Is this the way we want to go in the futur?

[charter man]

Dylsexlic - that has to be the most sensible post I have seen in this forum. Well said, you should be running an airline - unless you are already - because you are 100% correct! With the market conditions as they are, many businesses - in aviation and elsewhere - are having to stay lean and mean to survive. However if safety is being compromised for financial reasons, and if anyone experiences it, there are mechanisms in place to report it and get action taken.

[Skystar02]

Charterman, you're right but in Swiftair nobody is going to say how far is the company going because any pilot in SWT want to be fired. If you say something that company dislikes it you'll be fired. That is how Swiftair works.

Anybody in Swiftair has used EASA procedures to claim for any serius law deviation so the company will look for rest in A/C as someone said before, or even something worst. Then a swiftair pilot should think about looking for another job or trying to get into other line of bussiness like a pet shop or a bakery before getting that limits.

Regards!

[charter man]

I am very sad to hear to that you feel that way. If you are being required to break the law in order to keep your job then either do something about it or get out of there fast. BUT, I do not believe that these matters are the difference between Swiftair (or any airline) staying in business or not. There are many people around the world being taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers, more so at the moment, it is known as greed. But if you genuinely feel that your safety and those around you is being compromised then please do something!