Crossair
Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport was a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland. It became Swiss International Air Lines after taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002.
History
Founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basel AG by Moritz Suter, it changed to Crossair on 18 November 1978, before the beginning of scheduled services on 2 July 1979 with flights from Zürich to Nuremberg, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt. It was headquartered at Zurich International Airport in Kloten in 1985.It added charter services for major shareholder Swissair in November 1995. On 31 March 2002, Swissair passed out of existence as
most of its assets were taken over by Crossair which then changed names to Swiss International Air Lines.
tail on a Crossair MD-83 in a McDonald's livery to promote the restaurant.
Fleet
Crossair operated the following aircraft.| Aircraft | Total | Delivered | Retired | Notes |
| Piper L-4J | 1 | 1975 | ||
| Cessna 310P | 1 | 1975 | ||
| Cessna 421B | 1 | 1976 | ||
| Cessna 551 | 1 | 1977 | First Jet Operated by Crossair | |
| Fairchild Swearingen Metro II | 3 | 1979 | May have been used up to the late 80s or early 90s | |
| Fairchild Swearingen Metro II | 9 | 1980s | May have been used up to the late 80s or early 90s | |
| Saab 340 | 34 | 1984 | 2002 | flew mainly from Basel as well as Lugano and Zürich. Replaced by Embraer ERJ-145. One crashed as Flight 498 |
| Fokker 50 | 5 | 1990 | 1995 | |
| Fokker F27 Friendship | 3 | 1984 | 1984 | |
| BAe 146 | 3 | 1990 | 1994 | |
| Avro RJ 85 | 4 | 1993 | 2002 | named Kärpf, Piz Julier, Montchaibeux, Lindenberg |
| Avro RJ 100 | 16 | 1995 | 2002 | All were named. One written off as Flight 3597 |
| Saab 2000 | 32 | 1994 | 2002 | all were stored or sold, though what happened to one is not known was world's largest operator of the type in 2000 flown mainly from Basel as well as Lugano and Zürich replaced by Embraer ERJ 145. One written off as Flight 850 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-83 | 12 | 2004 | some were named, all were sold, though what happened to one is not known mostly used on larger routes from Zurich, and some from Basel | |
| Embraer ERJ 145 LU | 25 | 2000 | all were named or sold used on routes from all three hubs replaced SAAB aircraft | |
| Embraer ERJ 145 LR | 1 | 2002 | named Gemsstock used on routes from all three hubs replaced SAAB aircraft |
Destinations
Crossair flew from Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lugano and Zurich. Crossair was very interested in serving from several hubs and, therefore set up a multi-hub business plan. Crossair set up a Eurocross scheme from their Basel base which was set up to help them serve smaller airports and transfer their passengers to larger hubs with short transit times This helped Crossair link with their partners, such as Swissair from Zurich. Crossair also operated flights between Swiss airports.Incidents and accidents
- On 10 January 2000, Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off from Zürich. All 10 people aboard were killed.
- On 24 November 2001, Crossair Flight 3597 crashed near Zürich, killing 24 of 33 people aboard, including the famous La Bouche singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three girls from German Eurodance group Passion Fruit. One crew survived along with eight other passengers, and suffered minor injuries and third-degree burns.
- On 10 July 2002, Crossair Flight 850 made an emergency landing at Werneuchen Airfield, Germany. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair when it hit an earth bank placed across the runway, the markings of which did not conform to standards.
Head office