Crossair

"Swissair Regional" redirects here. For the regional airline of Swissair's successor, see Swiss European Air Lines.

Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport (German: Crossair AG für europäischen Regionalluftverkehr) was a Swiss regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.

Crossair

An MD-82 of Crossair
IATA ICAO Call sign LX CRX CROSSAIR
Founded	1975 (1975) (as Business Flyers Basel AG)[1]
Commenced operations	18 November 1978 (1978-11-18) (as Crossair)
Ceased operations	31 March 2002 (2002-03-31) (re-organized as SWISS)
Hubs	EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg
Frequent-flyer program	Qualiflyer
Subsidiaries	Crossair Europe (1997–2002)
Parent company	SAirGroup
Headquarters	Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France
Founder	Moritz Suter
Website	Crossair.com

After taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002, Crossair was restructured to become SWISS.^[2]

History

The airline was founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basel AG in 1975 by Moritz Suter. The name later 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.^{[citation needed]} It was headquartered at Zurich Airport in Kloten in 1985.^[3]

It added charter services for major shareholder Swissair in November 1995.^{[citation needed]}

After parent company SAirGroup had to apply for a debt restructuring moratorium in October 2001, it became necessary to change the entire planning. On 31 March 2002, Swissair ceased all operations while most of its assets were taken over by Crossair which then was subsequently restructured and rebranded to become Swiss International Air Lines.^[2]

Head office

Crossair was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.^[4] In 2002 the name "Crossair" was replaced with "Swiss International Air Lines" on the head office building.^[5]

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 to serve smaller airports and transfer their passengers to larger hubs with short transit times (only around 20 minutes) This helped Crossair link with partners, such as Swissair from Zurich. Crossair also operated flights between Swiss airports.^{[citation needed]}

Fleet

Crossair Avro RJ85

Crossair McDonnell Douglas MD-82

Crossair Saab 2000

Crossair has operated the following aircraft throughout its existence:^[6]

Crossair fleet

Aircraft	Total	Introduced	Retired	Notes
Avro RJ85	4	1993	2002	Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines.
Avro RJ100	16	1995	2002	Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines. One crashed as Flight 3597.
British Aerospace 146-200A	3	1990	1994
British Aerospace 146-300	2	1991	1996
Cessna T210	1	1976	Un­known
Cessna 310P	1	1976	Un­known
Cessna 320C	1	1975	Un­known
Cessna 421B	1	1976	Un­known
Cessna 550	1	1976	Un­known
Cessna 551	1	1977	1982
Embraer ERJ-145LU	22	2000	2002	Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines.
Fairchild Hiller FH-227	1	1984	1984	Leased from Delta Air Transport.
Fairchild Swearingen Metro II	3	1979	1983
Fairchild Swearingen Metro III	9	1981	1990
Fokker F27 Friendship	2	1984	1984
Fokker 50	5	1990	1995
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14	1	1995	1995	Leased from ALG Aeroleasing
McDonnell Douglas MD-82	1	1995	2001	Transferred to Nordic Airlink.
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	11	1995	2002
Piper L-4J	1	1975	2001
Saab 340	14	1984	2002	One crashed as Flight 498.
Saab 2000	32	1994	2002	Largest operator. One written off as Flight 850.

Accidents and incidents

• 10 January 2000: Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off from Zürich. All 10 people aboard were killed.^[7]

• 24 November 2001: Crossair Flight 3597 crashed near Zürich, killing 24 of 33 people aboard, including the former La Bouche lead singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three members of the German Eurodance group Passion Fruit. The third member, Debby St. Maarten, sustained serious injuries but survived.^[8]

See also

• Crossair Europe
• Swissair