Airline name game could end this week

Crossair's new name will be announced later this week Keystone

This week's big news is the all-important renaming of Switzerland's national airline. A Crossair spokesperson told swissinfo that the new name would be announced on Thursday.

Crossair’s board decided on the name of the airline some two weeks ago but has refused to unveil it until legal enquiries are carried out to check that the brand isn’t already registered.

Most analysts expect the name to involve some combination of the words “Swiss” and “Air”, possibly: Air Swiss or Swiss Airlines.

The new identity aims to give the airline a fresh start. It will consist of the existing Crossair fleet of 75 aircraft plus 52 Swissair planes, 26 of which will cover inter-continental routes.

The Swissair brand was seriously devalued last year by the two-day grounding of the fleet. It’s also feared that creditors may pounce unless the airline has a new name.

Numbers over the next business week are thin on the ground. But we can expect quarterly sales figures from chocolate maker Lindt and Spruengli on Tuesday and international trading and distrubution company, Valora, on Thursday.

Brits visit Zurich

Switzerland’s financial sector will be under the review of six British parliamentarians on Thursday.

They’ll be visiting Zurich for a day as guests of the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

The objective is for them to see at first hand Swiss due diligence in operation in the finance sector and review client confidentiality and various aspects of money laundering and its prevention.

Zurich Financial will be in the news on Friday as it talks to analysts about its new accounts reformatted to reflect the new group structure.

It will also give an update on its European operations, including Deutscher Herold, which Zurich took over from Deutsche Bank.

Economic outlook

On the economic front the Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF) will be releasing its leading economic indicators for December on Wednesday.

The think tanks regular survey will be keenly awaited to see how optimistic the country’s business community is about the future trends for the economy.

by Tom O’Brien