It has collapsed http://news.airwise.com/stories/2004/06/1086257265.html Mark Quoting Dennis W Zeuch <DZTOPS@xxxxxxx>: > BA alliance with Swiss near to collapse > By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent > Published: June 2 2004 22:05 | Last Updated: June 2 2004 22:05 > > The commercial alliance between British Airways and Swiss International > Airlines is close to collapse, and an end to the pact is expected to be > announced soon. > > Last September the airlines announced an ambitious accord that was supposed > to lead to the struggling Swiss carrier joining the Oneworld global airline > alliance led by BA and American Airlines. > > But a condition for Swiss's entry to Oneworld was completion of a bilateral > commercial pact with BA and in recent weeks the two have been unable to > agree on a key element - the merger of the airlines' frequent flyer > programmes. > > As part of the pact with BA, Swiss's present frequent flyer programme, > Swiss > TravelClub, was supposed to be integrated into BA's Executive Club. But > since the deal was concluded there has been a shake-up of top management at > the Swiss airline. > > The new team, led by Christoph Franz, has become increasingly reluctant to > hand over to BA the details of its frequent flyers, including key business > travellers. A sticking point has been the inability of the sides to agree > on > the price Swiss would pay BA for picking up the liabilities of unspent > frequent flyer miles in the Swiss programme. > > Swiss's failure to enter Oneworld is a setback to its recovery strategy. > Membership of one of the world's three leading alliances - including Star, > led by Lufthansa and United Airlines, SkyTeam led by Air France and Delta > Air Lines, and Oneworld - has been a long-held goal. The airline said last > year that its membership of the Oneworld alliance could bring about SFr100m > (=A343.6m) in extra annual revenues. > > Swiss was formed out of the 2001 collapse of Swissair through a SFr2.7bn > rescue by the Swiss government, several cantons and leading industrial > groups, banks and private investors. It started flying at the end of March > 2002 but struggled from the outset with too much capacity and a network too > big for its available market. > > It is pushing through a third restructuring package to cut annual costs by > SFr1.6bn but it has struggled for many months to reach agreement on extra > bank financing of up to SFr500m. >