Swissair filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after the collapse of its parent company, SAirGroup, ended the airline’s operations under its historic name.
Founded in 1931, Swissair became Switzerland’s national airline and developed a reputation for quality and reliability. In the late 1990s, SAirGroup pursued an aggressive expansion strategy known as the “Hunter Strategy,” taking stakes in airlines across Europe. Many of those investments performed poorly and created major financial pressure.
The crisis became public in October 2001, when Swissair was forced to ground its aircraft after it could not meet immediate financial obligations. Flights resumed after emergency support, but the original company could not be saved. Swissair’s operations were transferred into a successor airline, Swiss International Air Lines.
Swissair is sometimes confused with Swiss, the airline that later adopted parts of its identity. Swiss began operations in 2002 and became part of Lufthansa in 2007, while the original Swissair was the bankrupt company.