Swiss airline reports 980 million franc loss in first year of business Canadian Press Friday, March 14, 2003 BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Switzerland's new national airline, Swiss, said Friday it lost 980 million francs - or $706 million US - in its first year of business. Swiss - officially Swiss International Air Lines - said its 2002 operations were hit by one-off expenditure of 180 million francs as it transformed itself from a European regional airline to a worldwide carrier. Sales in 2002 were 4.3 billion francs - $3 billion US - it said. The figures were announced ahead of Swiss' full annual results, which are due to be released March 25. In trading in Zurich, Swiss stock was up 22.5 per cent at 4.90 francs. Swiss formally came into being in March 2002, bringing together the remnants of the former national carrier, Swissair, which collapsed in October 2001, and its profitable former subsidiary Crossair, a regional carrier. Last month the airline announced it was getting rid of 20 planes - from a fleet of 132 - slashing routes and cutting around 700 jobs. Swiss has about 10,000 employees. Swiss reiterated Friday that the decision was a result of "the continuing economic recession and the radical crisis afflicting the world airline industry." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************