Hope springs eternal, and sometimes so do new airlines. Just as Switzerland lost a struggling short-haul airline, four partners have announced plans for a new long-distance carrier.
Led by a former Air Berlin senior executive and a Ryanair pilot, the group hopes to raise $100 million to start flying from Basel as Swiss Skies. They plan to start with flights to the U.S. and later to add destinations in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia. One of the founders has suggested that Cincinnati might be a starting point.
The airline, if it’s able to start, would follow the low-cost-carrier pattern of charging for meals, bags, and anything else possible. It hopes to start with 16 aircraft, growing to 38 and profitability in its third year. That’s based on a belief that they can hold costs 30% under those of other carriers, but it did not say how it expects to do that.
Meanwhile, last week, SkyWork, an airline flying from Bern, Switzerland to a number of Swiss and European destinations, shut down abruptly last week, stranding passengers and leaving the Swiss capital without scheduled air service.
