LONDON — Cargo operations will remain unchanged after Swiss International Air Lines on Tuesday said it will join the Oneworld global alliance led by British Airways and American Airlines in a move that will shrink its payroll and fleet by a third and pare 25 percent of its flight network.
The move comes after speculation that Swiss would merge with Germany's Lufthansa, and enables the troubled airline to remain independent while undergoing its third restructuring in the past 12 months.
"The big news is that there's no change for cargo," said Bernd Maresch, spokesman for Swiss World Cargo, in a telephone interview. "It might have looked differently," he said, referring to the likely changes that would have resulted if Lufthansa, Europe's leading cargo carrier, had acquired Swiss.
Swiss also signed a separate bilateral agreement with BA under which it will give the British carrier eight of its 14 daily landing and take-off slots at London Heathrow airport in return for a $37 million credit facility.
The two carriers said they will co-operate on passenger flights between Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Swiss said joining Oneworld would provide direct commercial benefits of around $74 million a year. It said its main banks had agreed to supply it with fresh liquidity " to cushion against unforeseen events" but did not specify how much cash they are willing to provide. Swiss has said it needs $300 million.
Swiss, formed from the bankruptcy of Swissair in 2001, lost $ 706 million in its first year of operation and will lose money in 2003. But Dose said the carrier is on the way to recovery in 2004 and will show a profit in 2005.
— By Bruce Barnard
— with contributions from William Armbruster in Newark
Traffic World
Reprint permission