Creditors wait for new information on Swissair collapse

Swissair administrator, Karl Wüthrich, expects more clarification after Wednesday's meeting Keystone

Swissair creditors are waiting to find out to what extent the management was to blame for the downfall of the national carrier.

In an interview with the German-speaking newspaper, “Finanz und Wirtschaft”, the Swissair administrator, Karl Wüthrich, said details of possible management culpability in the collapse of the airline would be announced at a meeting of shareholders on Wednesday.

The new information is part of an initial report on Wüthrich’s investigations into the Swissair collapse, which he is planning to submit together with the accountancy firm Ernst & Young this autumn.

He added the meeting would also deal with the copyright issue of the new airline’s name, “swiss”, as it had not yet been clarified whether the new brand name was in conflict with the old Swissair brand.

He said the fact that swiss had advertised that it had “97 years of experience” shortly after it was launched at the beginning of this year showed that the company had not detached itself from its predecessor.

Facing claims

Wüthrich said that SAirGroup, the former holding company of Swissair, was facing claims of SFr38 billion as of October 5 last year. However, the group’s assets were only worth SFr1.65 billion, which would be used to cover the claims.

According to Wüthrich, SFr12 billion of the creditor’s claims is for damages, mostly demanded by Swissair’s foreign subsidiaries.

The Swissair Group collapsed in October 2001, grounding the airline and forcing the company into receivership.

In April of this year, the Swiss regional carrier, Crossair, took over the bulk of Swissair’s profitable long-haul routes when it relaunched as the new national carrier, swiss.

swissinfo with agencies