# Crossair

Crossair Ltd. Co. for Regional European Air Transport (German: Crossair AG für europäischen Regionalluftverkehr) was a Swiss regional airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.
After taking over most of the assets of Swissair following that airline's bankruptcy in 2002, Crossair was restructured to become Swiss International Air Lines.

## History

The airline was founded as a private company under the name Business Flyers Basel AG in 1975 by Moritz Suter. The name later 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. It was headquartered at Zurich Airport in Kloten in 1985.
It added charter services for major shareholder Swissair in November 1995.
After parent company SAirGroup had to apply for a debt restructuring moratorium in October 2001, it became necessary to change the entire planning. On 31 March 2002, Swissair ceased all operations while most of its assets were taken over by Crossair which then was subsequently restructured and rebranded to become Swiss International Air Lines.

## Head office

Crossair was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland. In 2002 the name "Crossair" was replaced with "Swiss International Air Lines" on the head office building.

## Destinations

Crossair flew from Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lugano and Zurich. Crossair was very interested in serving from several hubs and, therefore set up a multi-hub business plan. Crossair set up a Eurocross scheme from their Basel base to serve smaller airports and transfer their passengers to larger hubs with short transit times (only around 20 minutes) This helped Crossair link with partners, such as Swissair from Zurich. Crossair also operated flights between Swiss airports.

## Fleet

Crossair has operated the following aircraft throughout its existence:
Crossair fleet :
| Aircraft | Total | Introduced | Retired | Notes |
| Avro RJ85 | 4 | 1993 | 2002 | Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines. |
| Avro RJ100 | 16 | 1995 | 2002 | Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines. One crashed as Flight 3597. |
| British Aerospace 146-200A | 3 | 1990 | 1994 | |
| British Aerospace 146-300 | 2 | 1991 | 1996 | |
| Cessna T210 | 1 | 1976 | Un­known | |
| Cessna 310P | 1 | 1976 | Un­known | |
| Cessna 320C | 1 | 1975 | Un­known | |
| Cessna 421B | 1 | 1976 | Un­known | |
| Cessna 550 | 1 | 1976 | Un­known | |
| Cessna 551 | 1 | 1977 | 1982 | |
| Embraer ERJ-145LU | 22 | 2000 | 2002 | Transferred to Swiss International Air Lines. |
| Fairchild Hiller FH-227 | 1 | 1984 | 1984 | Leased from Delta Air Transport. |
| Fairchild Swearingen Metro II | 3 | 1979 | 1983 | |
| Fairchild Swearingen Metro III | 9 | 1981 | 1990 | |
| Fokker F27 Friendship | 2 | 1984 | 1984 | |
| Fokker 50 | 5 | 1990 | 1995 | |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 | 1 | 1995 | 1995 | Leased from ALG Aeroleasing |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 | 1 | 1995 | 2001 | Transferred to Nordic Airlink. |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-83 | 11 | 1995 | 2002 | |
| Piper L-4J | 1 | 1975 | 2001 | |
| Saab 340 | 14 | 1984 | 2002 | One crashed as Flight 498. |
| Saab 2000 | 32 | 1994 | 2002 | Largest operator. One written off as Flight 850. |

## Accidents and incidents

* 10 January 2000: Crossair Flight 498 crashed just after take-off from Zürich. All 10 people aboard were killed.
* 24 November 2001: Crossair Flight 3597 crashed near Zürich, killing 24 of 33 people aboard, including the former La Bouche lead singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three members of the German Eurodance group Passion Fruit. The third member, Debby St. Maarten, sustained serious injuries but survived.