A bankruptcy judge in Zurich has granted a six-month debt moratorium to the SAirGroup (now Swissair Group) and its SAirLines airline division.

These and other companies of the collapsed Swissair Group have been under a provisional debt moratorium since October 5 after the financial collapse of the group and a two-day grounding of Swissair planes.

The move means that the companies have protection against creditors and their debts are frozen.

The judge announced that Karl Wüthrich, who has been the provisional administrator of the Swissair Group, would continue looking into the financial status of the holding company and its subsidiaries.

May deadline

Reports on the situation have to be handed in to the court by May 29.

The assets of the SAirGroup were said to be SFr1.6 billion ($970 million), while they were totalled SFr680 million at SAirLines.

Four other companies within the group are expecting a similar court decision before Wednesday.

The Swissair Group was hit hard by the drop in demand for air travel in the wake of the terror attacks in the United States on September 11 and posted record losses of SFr2.9 billion in 2000.

On Thursday, shareholders of the regional airline Crossair are to decide in Basel on the plan to create a new airline around the nucleus of Crossair and 52 aircraft of Swissair.

swissinfo with agencies

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