Crossair

Updated on Oct 28, 2023

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LX CRX Frequent-flyer program Qualiflyer Founded 1978 Ceased operations March 31, 2002 Founders Moritz Suter, Peter Kalt		CRX CROSSAIR Parent company SAirGroup Headquarters Saint-Louis, France Fleet size 88 Parent organization Swissair

Hubs Euro-Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Key people Moritz Suter (Founder and former CEO) André Dosé (CEO) Hub EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg

Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport (German: Crossair AG für europäischen Regionalluftverkehr) was a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland. It became Swiss International Air Lines after taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002.

History

Founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basel AG by Moritz Suter, it changed to Crossair on 18 November 1978, before the beginning of scheduled services on 2 July 1979 with flights from Zürich to Nuremberg, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt. It was headquartered at Zürich International Airport in Kloten in 1985.

It added charter services for major shareholder Swissair in November 1995. On 31 March 2002, Swissair passed out of existence as most of its assets were taken over by Crossair which then changed names to Swiss International Air Lines.

Fleet

Crossair operated the following aircraft.

Destinations

Crossair flew from Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lugano and Zurich. Crossair was very interested in serving from several hubs and, therefore set up a multi-hub business plan. Crossair set up a Eurocross scheme from their Basel base which was set up to help them serve smaller airports and transfer their passengers to larger hubs with short transit times (only around 20 minutes) This helped Crossair link with their partners, such as Swissair from Zurich. Crossair also operated flights between Swiss airports.

Incidents and accidents

On 10 January 2000, Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off from Zürich. All 10 people aboard were killed.

On 24 November 2001, Crossair Flight 3597 crashed near Zürich, killing 24 of 33 people aboard, including the famous La Bouche singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three girls from German Eurodance group Passion Fruit. One survived along with eight other passengers, and suffered minor injuries and third-degree burns.

On 10 July 2002, Crossair Flight 850 made an emergency landing at Werneuchen Airfield, Germany. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair when it hit an earth bank placed across the runway, the markings of which did not conform to standards.

Head office

Crossair was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland. In 2002 the name "Crossair" was replaced with "Swiss International Air Lines" on the head office building.

References

Crossair Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA