BASEL, Switzerland -- Switzerland regains a national airline March
31 with the rebranding of regional player Crossair simply as
"Swiss."
Serving 123 destinations in 60 countries, Swiss -- backed by
more than $1.6 billion from Swiss industry, government and citizens
-- will look a lot like bankrupt veteran flag carrier Swissair,
which collapsed after a failed acquisition and expansion
program.
Swiss will fly daily from Zurich to seven U.S. cities, including
New York, to which service from Geneva also is planned.
The Swiss airplanes will feature a red, square logo containing
the word Swiss and a cross in the lower right hand side.
Speaking from Basel during a telephone press conference, Andre
Dose, chief executive officer of Crossair and Swiss, said employees
of Crossair were presented with the new Swiss brand identity on
Jan. 31.
The carrier intends to hold a major event in New York on Feb. 17
and 18 to officially roll out the new identity in the U.S.
Dose also said he and his team are in "intense negotiations" to
join the Star Alliance, Sky Team or One World alliances.
Although he could not comment on details, Dose said the airline
hopes to announce a "principal alliance partner" before April
1.
If the carrier is unable to participate in an alliance, it will
opt to develop bilateral agreements, Dose said.
Meanwhile, the new Swiss brand name, Dose said, reflects
Switzerland's reputation for quality service.
In March, the carrier plans to hold another event during which
it will roll out certain "improvements to the product," according
to Dose.
He would not specify exactly what the improvement would be,
however, he did indicate that at least some of the improvements
would encompass significant upgrades of economy and business
classes -- including improved seating -- while tweaking first
class.
The airline's immediate goals are "to concentrate on core
values. We want to be the airline that gets benchmarked [the best
in the industry] in all three [service] classes," Dose said.
"But I don't want to limit it to the on-board product. The
product on the ground plays an equally big role and we have some
specific ideas to improve," for instance, the check-in
facilities.
Dose noted that Swiss has certain advantages over its
competitors, largely due to the fact that it emerged out of the
failed Swissair.
"We had the unique chance to start on a clean sheet of paper,"
Dose said, which including renegotiating the airplane leases at a
rate 40% lower than what Swissair was paying.
Similarly, it was able negotiate the most cost-effective labor
agreements with its unions.
"That simply means we are going to be the cost leader in fixed
cost compared to our competitors," Dose said. Some of the savings
will be invested "where the passengers will actually notice
it."