Swissair Case Study

Swissair was a successful international airline from 1931 to 2001. In 1931, ‘Schweizerische Luftverkehrs AG – Swissair’ was founded as a fusion of two small-sized airlines named Swiss Ad Astra and Belair. The company was started with a capital of 800,000 Swiss francs, 64 employees, and 13 airplanes (Von Schroeder, 2002, p. 19). The development of Swissair was fast – only 15 years later, the airline had 789 employees (ibid., p. 17) and introduced new long-haul airplanes into their fleet, which allowed them to fly nonstop to destinations all around the world (ibid., p. 55). In the following years, the company generated net profits of several millions of Swiss francs (ibid., p. 206) before declaring their grounding in 2001 (ibid., p. 434). Swissair was famous for its reliability and

Fourteen crew members, including two pilots, were on board the flight (Transportation Safety Board of Canada, 2003, p. 5). The captain was Urs Zimmermann, who had over 10,000 flight hours and was promoted to captain in April 1983 (ibid., p. 6). First officer Stefan Loëw had about 4,800 flying hours, 230 of which he completed on a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 (MD-11). He became licensed to fly this type of airplane in May 1998 (ibid., p. 7). The eleven cabin crew members, as well as the maître de cabin, were certified and experienced according to international requirements (ibid.). The Swissair airplane was an MD-11 manufactured in 1991. The MD-11 is an improved model of the former DC-10 (ibid., p. 3) and has a length of 61.6 m, as well as a wingspan of 51.7 m (Boeing Commercial Airplanes, 1990). The airplane had a seat capacity of 285 passengers in 3 classes, and its fuel tank allowed it to fly 13,239 km (Ledger, 2000, p. 4). By acquiring the MD-11, Swissair launched a new kind of luxury on board: an entertainment system with movies and games for all first- and business-class passengers (O’Connor, 2009, p.