Crossair

IATA LX ICAO CRX Callsign Crossair
Founded	1978
Hubs	Euro-Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg
Frequent flyer program	Qualiflyer
Alliance	Qualiflyer
Fleet size	88
Destinations
Parent company	SAirGroup
Headquarters	Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France
Key people	Moritz Suter
Website	Crossair.com

Crossair was a regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.^[1] It became Swiss International Air Lines after taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002.

Contents 1 History 2 Fleet 3 Incidents and accidents 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

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Founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basle 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.^{[citation needed]} It was headquartered at Zürich International Airport in Kloten in 1985.^[2]

It a dded 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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
Fairchild Swearingen Metro II	3	1979
Fairchild Swearingen Metro II	9	1980? (actual year unknown)
SAAB 340	34	1984	2002	flew mainly from Basel replaced by Embraer ERJ 145
Fokker 50	5	1990	1995
Fokker F27	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
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 replaced by Embraer ERJ 145
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	12	1979	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	2005? (actual year unknown)	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

• Swissair leased an MD-11 to Crossair for the Zurich-Palma De Mallorca route.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

• On 10 January 2000, Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off in 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.

[edit] See also

Swissair

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Crossair Website - crossair.com (Archive)
• Crossair Website - crossair.ch (Archive)