SWISS thoughts? Andre, rkkwan etc...
 

I see in the paper that there is again discussion of a Lufthansa takeover of SWISS.
I know SWISS has been losing money since its inception. Just wondering if you insiders have any insight on what could happen to this carrier.

It's probably going to happen. I believe Swiss tried to sell itself to British Airways, but for some reason that didn't go through - either political or BA thinks it doesn't make enough sense.

Right now, while not a oneworld partner, Swiss has plenty of codeshares with AA. I think with a sale to LH, those agreement may end.

The airline is broke, so I guess this is a good thing. Plans for reducing the fleet and 1000 employees are still going to happen, though.

Just makes me sad that there will no longer be a wholly owned swiss carrier in Switzerland.

Hope they keep giving out the chocolates at the end of flights!

Hi, rkkwan. I have tentative reservations for a FF ticket through AA using Swiss from Zurich to Cairo. I will not be travelling until Jan. 2006. How do you think will this will affect me?

Latest info:

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa confirmed on Sunday that it is in talks to take over loss-making Swiss International.

The two airlines jointly developed the business model for the integration of the companies, which is subject to approval from Lufthansa's supervisory board, the relevant Swiss corporate bodies and Swiss core shareholders bound by a lock-up agreement.

"If the required approvals are obtained Lufthansa will submit an offer to the free float shareholders based on the average share price of the recent weeks," Lufthansa said.

P_M: If you're ticketed, there really shouldn't be any problem even if Swiss ends its codeshare with AA. And I doubt they will end things this soon anyways.

Thanks for a quick response, rk. I am not exactly ticketed yet, AA will hold it for me until March 25, but chances are I will go ahead and book before then. I am mainly concerned because AA doesn't allow me to use Lufthansa for FF tickets. But it sounds like you are saying that if I have the ticket already, Lufthansa will go ahead and honor it. That would make sense. Thanks.