Swissair (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne)[1] was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.

[2] For most of its 71 years, it was one of the major international airlines and known as the "Flying Bank" due to its financial stability, causing it to be regarded as a Swiss national symbol and icon.

Due to its so-called "Hunter Strategy" of expanding its market by acquiring smaller airlines, Swissair was suffering from over-expansion by the late 1990s.

The crash of Swissair Flight 111 in 1998, which killed all 229 people on board, generated a costly lawsuit and negative publicity for the airline.

After the economic downturn following the September 11 attacks, Swissair's assets dramatically lost value, grounding the already-troubled airline in October 2001.

On 1 April 2002, a former regional subsidiary Crossair renamed itself Swiss International Air Lines and took over most of Swissair's routes, planes, and staff.

On 17 April 1932, Swissair bought two Lockheed Orions, making them the second European airline to use American planes after the Czechoslovak operator CSA purchased a Ford Trimotor in 1930.

In June 1950, Walter Berchtold, manager of Swiss Federal Railways, was elected to the directorial board of Swissair and served as the director.

At the time, flight attendants' uniforms resembled the grey-blue ones of the Swiss Women's Army Corps, so Berchtold introduced ones in a modish marine blue.

To counter these changes, Swissair invested their large financial reserves into takeovers and into flight-related trades like baggage handling, catering, aircraft maintenance, and duty-free stores.

Dublin was added to the route network as a new destination, but service to Beirut had to be discontinued in mid-July due to the political turmoil in Lebanon.

The route network was expanded with service to Jakarta, but flights to Tehran and Baghdad had to be suspended after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war.

New representations or points of sale were opened in Luxembourg, Ulm, Ottawa, Raleigh, Westchester, Valparaíso, Jubil, Sanaa, and Salisbury/Harare.

Under the name Swissôtel, the hotels Président in Geneva, International in Zürich, Drake in New York, and Bellevue Palace in Bern were administratively combined.

On 1 January 1991, commercial aviation in Europe was completely liberalised, and existing capacities led to aggressive competition among airlines.

In a national referendum held on 6 December 1992, Swiss citizens rejected taking part in the European Economic Area (EEA).

This referendum was a significant disservice to Swissair, an airline with a tiny domestic market: its planes were not allowed to take up passengers during intermediate landings in EEA countries (e.g., Zürich-Frankfurt-New York), and Swissair was not allowed to offer tickets for sections that fully lie in EEA member countries (e.g., Zürich-Frankfurt-Paris).

[5][8] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Swissair tried to merge with Air France, Lufthansa, and British Airways to get access to a wider European market.

In the mid-1990s, Swissair initiated the disastrous "Hunter Strategy", a major expansion programme devised by the US consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

[11] During the European airline deregulation transition, Jeffrey Katz served as CEO of Swissair from 1997 to 2000, a period of increased fuel prices and industry overcapacity.

[12] In the summer of 2000, SAir's CEO Philippe Bruggisser came under public pressure as the press published the group's financial situation.

For the first time, the board began to consider scenarios for phasing out its existing participation in other airlines as Swissair looked to withdraw from its foreign investments.

[14] The buying spree created a major cash flow crisis for parent company SAirGroup and was exacerbated by the environment caused by the September 11 attacks.

Unable to make payments to creditors on its large debt, and with the refusal of UBS to extend its line of credit, on 2 October 2001 the entire Swissair fleet was abruptly grounded.

[23] In his 2004 statement, Dose voiced the view that Corti and then-CFO Jacqualyn Fouse had lost oversight of Swissair's finances, accounting for this mismatch in perception of available funds.

[22] Mario Corti vehemently rejected the notion that Swissair and SAirGroup bank accounts together held more than 14 million Swiss francs in a public statement after the Ernst & Young report came out.

[25][26][27] This occurred, in part, to ensure Switzerland's continued accessibility as a business location and to establish a basis for the creation of Swiss.

The entire former Swissair management board stood facing criminal charges of mismanagement, false statements, and forgery of documents.

[42] The top defendants in the trial were Mario Corti, Philippe Bruggisser, George Schorderet, Jacqualyn Fouse, Eric Honegger, and Verena Spoerry.

To prevent the trademark from becoming void through disuse, Swiss licensed it to Hopscotch Air, which operates a fleet of Cirrus SR22 planes in the United States, for use from 2010 to 2013.