=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/04/19/f= inancial1510EDT0179.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, April 19, 2004 (AP) Swiss International Air Lines announces new chief (04-19) 12:10 PDT BASEL, Switzerland (AP) -- Switzerland's struggling national carrier Swiss International Air Lines announced Monday it had named Christoph Franz as chief executive. Franz, who has been with the German national railway Deutsche Bahn AG for the past nine years, succeeds Andre Dose, who quit last month. Franz, 43, will join the airline May 1 and take over as CEO on July 1, said the airline, which is known as Swiss. A company statement said the board of directors chose Franz, 43, who most recently was a member of executive management in charge of passenger sales with the railway. From 1990 to 1994 he was with Lufthansa, where he was part of the team that planned that airline's financial turnaround after the Gulf War. Dose had headed the company, the successor to Swissair, since it was launched two years ago. The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office said in February that it had opened an investigation, on suspicion of negligent homicide and grievous bodily harm by negligence, over the Nov. 24, 2001, crash of Crossair Flight CRX3597 near Zurich. Crossair was a subsidiary of Swissair. Accident investigators have said the crash was caused by an "overtired" pilot who flew too low. The scheduled flight from Berlin, arriving in rain and snow, crashed into woodland on approach to Zurich Airport, killing 24 and injuring nine other people. Swiss said that it followed all national and international safety requirements before the crash. The airline has suffered massive financial problems although its 2003 lo= ss of 687 million Swiss francs ($554 million) was better than forecast. The company blamed its money woes on continuing global economic instability, the SARS crisis, the Iraq war and major changes in European air travel due to the increasing influence of low-cost carriers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 AP