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Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 18:12:00 -0500
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Gruetzi,
I'm monitoring this list at the moment for a regular reader on
vacations, so forgive the comments from the peanut gallery...
..however I don't disagree with the high-end, luxury positioning
of SWISSair. What brought Swissair down to its knees was a failed
investment policy and bungled alliances, where in the end the
Qualiflyer alliance had lost all useful partners on a global
scale.
In it's best times, Swissair would partner with such excellent
airlines as Singapour Airlines, Delta (which then was amongst
the better US airlines) and had a truly global route network
in conjunction with the partner airlines. That was lost somehow,
and false attempts at cost cutting alienated traditional customers.
The problem SWISSair and any company in mid-western Europe has
are the high base salaries, benefits, etc. There are no $5.50/h
minimum wages in CH. It is that which raises the fixed costs
of SWISSair to a level where they can't truly compete in the
budget segment of the airline industry, so they have to go upscale.
For similar reasons brands like VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes won't
compete in the budget segment with cars made in Germany. They either
buy brands like SEAT, Skoda, etc. to fill that gap, and/or move
production of major parts (like engines) to places like Hungary.
It would be rather difficult for a Swiss national airline to
operate from there, however ;-)
Mercedes realized that they were lacking a low end brand, and that
got them to buy Chrysler and to negotiate with Mitsubishi.
Swissair tried to expand with other companies in other markets,
the basic idea of which wasn't too far off, but either there wasn't
enough due diligence done checking the books and operations of
the targets, or the executions of the acquisitions was bungled
and so all that backfired.
So if SWISS want's to be profitable, I think they have to reestablish
themselves as the quality carrier they were. Of course, their
PR efforts are not exactly too great right now. It's too provincial
for a company that tries to "sell Switzerland to the world".
For that the *world* has to like SWISS, not the Swiss, particularly
not the non-traveling Swiss. The old Swissair knew that balance
rather well. An example of the silly corporate image, or lack
thereof, is the picture of two "well heeled ladies" that seem
to stand with a shopping cart in a Migros or some other supermarket.
Well heeled people you may want to depict a the Bahnhofstrasse in
Zurich, buying some Fabric Frontline or Hermes silk scarf, not
bagging their own food in a supermarket, wearing hats and fur
coats while doing so...
I wish them all the best, because despite minor gripes, the old
Swissair was amongst my favorite carriers.
Greetings,
Ronald
==============================================================================
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists
in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw | rcfa_at_cubiculum.com | NeXT-mail welcome
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Received on Fri Feb 01 2002 - 23:46:43 PST
