Moritz Suter
Moritz Suter (born September 3, 1943 in Basel ; resident in St. Gallen and Nesslau-Krummenau ) is a Swiss entrepreneur and pilot . He founded Crossair , a European regional airline , and has a significant stake in the insolvent airline Hello .
Suter has been a controversial personality in Switzerland since after two plane accidents at the then Crossair, criticism was raised not only of the pilots, but also of the Crossair management .
Life
Childhood and youth
Moritz Suter was born on September 3, 1943 in Basel as the son of the music professor and composer Robert Suter and grew up as an only child . He attended elementary and middle school in the cantons of Basel-Stadt , Bern , Graubünden and St. Gallen ; Even during this time Suter was enthusiastic about aviation, began training as a private pilot at the age of 18 and received his certification after one year in 1962 , which allowed him to live out his urge for freedom in the air. At school he found it difficult to subordinate himself, and so he left middle school at the age of 20 without a diploma ( Matura ).
Flying abroad
Thanks to his grandfather, Suter was still able to realize his dream of flying. His grandfather financed his private training as an airline pilot, which he successfully completed in England , the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In 1963 Suter left Switzerland and gained experience in Africa spraying fields with pesticides by small aircraft. From 1965 he worked as a line pilot for Luxair in Luxembourg .
Swissair
In 1967 Suter applied to the then national airline Swissair and returned to Switzerland; In the absence of a Swiss license, despite his experience abroad, he had to acquire one and was then employed as a copilot . First flew Suter piston aircraft Convair Metropolitan , and later the four-engine jet Convair Coronado on flights to the Middle East , the Far East and from South America and Africa. 1974 Suter was promoted to flight captain on the DC-9 .
Business Flyers Basel AG (BFB)
From the mid-1970s, Suter noticed that the aircraft on many European routes are underutilized, while at the same time many destinations in Europe are not even served. From this he concluded that a regional airline serving new destinations with smaller aircraft could do well in Europe.
On February 14, 1975 Moritz Suter and his childhood friend Peter Kalt founded Business Flyers Basel AG ( BFB ) as a company for the rental of aircraft, for pilot training and for taxi flights - despite the oil crisis and recession . The starting capital was 65,000 Swiss francs , and the fleet consisted of a used Cessna 310 with four seats and a two-seater Piper L-4 built in 1943. Suter himself was the managing director and main shareholder of the new company, while Kalt became chairman of the board of directors . In addition, Suter continued to work as a line pilot for Swissair.
Crossair
founding
In 1977, based on his experience as a Swissair pilot and with Business Flyers Basel AG, Suter decided to found a regional airline for scheduled services in Europe. A year later he found private investors, was able to increase the share capital to one million Swiss francs and renamed the company Crossair; Suter himself became a delegate of the board of directors.
In the same year 1978, the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) asked Crossair to raise its capital to two or three million Swiss francs. For this reason, Suter sold part of his shares. On April 26, 1979, Crossair received a provisional concession for some routes from the FOCA and from July 2 flew with two Swearingen-Metroliner-II aircraft from Zurich on scheduled services to Innsbruck , Klagenfurt and Nuremberg .
European Regional Airlines Association
In 1980 Crossair received further concessions for flights to Hanover and Lugano , for the route from Bern to Paris and those from Lugano to Geneva . The share capital was increased to 8 million Swiss francs; most of the investors came from Moritz Suter's circle of friends. At the same time, Suter founded the European Regional Airlines Association (ERA), which at the time numbered five airlines with 16 aircraft, 450 employees and 58,000 passengers per year. Moritz Suter is currently (2010) Honorary President of ERA.
Crossair grew rapidly, and so a further capital increase to 16 million Swiss francs was necessary in 1981, which in turn was financed by private investors close to Moritz Suter. At that time Suter was still working at Swissair, as Crossair could not yet pay its founder a wage .
In 1983 the next capital increase from 25 to 50 million Swiss francs took place. The investors no longer only came from Moritz Suter's environment, but were acquired via the preliminary exchange . In the same year, Crossair also received the definitive operating license from the FOCA .
Saab 340
In 1984 Crossair bought the first Saab Fairchild 340 aircraft , which were built at the instigation of Moritz Suter. On July 15, 1984, Crossair also presented its first flight attendants , after the pilots had previously been responsible for looking after the passengers. In addition, Crossair flew from Basel to Paris and Frankfurt , which made it even more important at Basel Airport.
Saab 2000
In 1985, the share capital was increased to 80 million Swiss francs and the stock on the stock exchanges of Basel, Geneva and Zurich listed . In 1988 there was a further capital increase to 160 million Swiss francs, which Swissair used to acquire 38 percent of Crossair shares with 41 percent of the votes. In addition, Crossair bought the first Saab 2000 aircraft, which, like the Saab 340 aircraft, had been specially developed for their requirements.
Takeover by Swissair
In 1990 Crossair carried more than a million passengers a year for the first time. In 1991 Swissair took over the majority of the share capital of Crossair, which is based at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg Airport .
From 1992 Crossair has been flying to London City Airport with a BAe 146 (Jumbolino) jet .
In 1993, Swissair expanded its stake in Crossair to 56.1 percent of the shares and 59 percent of the voting rights. Crossair also acquired four Avro RJ85 aircraft.
growth
At the end of 1994, 1420 people worked for Crossair and achieved a turnover of 400 million Swiss francs. The fleet comprised 36 aircraft, with which almost two million passengers were carried.
In 1995, Crossair continued to grow through the takeover of eight MD-82 and MD-83 aircraft, which came from the then airline Balair / CTA , which gave up its short-haul business. The Crossair route network was constantly expanded to include new destinations, the share capital was increased to 328.5 million Swiss francs, and Crossair was considered the largest holiday airline in Europe. By the end of the year, sales had grown by 15 percent and the fleet consisted of 74 aircraft. Frequently Crossair flew routes from Geneva and Zurich on behalf of Swissair, since it cost effective was operating at the same time thanks to comfortable aircraft and excellent service on board a very good reputation enjoyed - sometimes found up to a third of all flights Crossair as a wet lease for the Swissair takes place.
Plane crashes
In 2000 ( Crossair flight 498 near Nassenwil ) and 2001 ( Crossair flight 3597 near Bassersdorf ) a total of 34 people were killed in two Crossair plane crashes . The reputation of Crossair and Moritz Suter suffered as a result, who was accused of having grown too quickly and neglecting flight safety .
Because of the crash of Crossair flight 498 with ten dead on January 10, 2000 near Nassenwil, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office brought charges against six former Crossair officials, including Suter and CEO André Dosé, in October 2007 . She accused Suter and Dosé, among other things, of having been responsible for a “fear culture” at the airline, which led to the deliberate disregard of regulations. The proceedings were discontinued by the Federal Prosecutor's Office due to the statute of limitations and unproven breaches of duty of care .
Suter and five other employees, including the former CEO André Dosé, were charged with negligent manslaughter and grossly negligent bodily harm in the crash of Crossair flight 3597 with 24 deaths near Bassersdorf on November 24, 2001 , and were fully acquitted on May 16, 2008. The court awarded the six acquitted compensation totaling 851,000 francs. The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona found no causal connection for the crash, including in the charge of Suter's “aggressive expansion policy”.
Swissair II
In mid-2001 Swissair got into the greatest crisis in its history, and it became clear that only a comprehensive restructuring could save the company from collapse. In this situation, Suter took over the management of Swissair, but resigned from this position after only 44 days.
Swiss
At the end of September, the major Swiss banks UBS (51 percent) and Credit Suisse (49 percent) took over the SAirGroup share package (Phoenix project). On October 2, 2001, Swissair had to operate for a few days to adjust ( Grounding ) and the moratorium apply. As a result, the new Swiss airline Swiss was built on the basis of Crossair ; Moritz Suter was ousted at the General Meeting on December 6, 2001 and the majority of Crossair / Swiss passed into the hands of Credit Suisse and UBS as well as the public sector . The last official Crossair flight took place on March 27, 2002, and since then the airline has been operating under the name Swiss and no longer as a regional airline, but as a large company with short, medium and long-haul flights all over the world. As a result, Suter turned away from the "new" airline and turned to new projects.
Hello
In February 2004 Moritz Suter founded the new airline Hello in Basel and is its Chairman of the Board of Directors. Hello ceased operations on October 21, 2012 and filed for bankruptcy on November 26, 2012.
Carpatair / Moldavian Airlines
Moritz Suter is a shareholder in Moldavian Airlines and Edelweiss Air as well as Carpatair , of which he is also a member of the board of directors.
Basler newspaper
On November 24, 2010, Moritz Suter took over the Basler Zeitung Medien , which publishes the Basler Zeitung among other things . Suter became chairman of the board of directors and publisher . On December 12, 2011 Moritz Suter ceded his shares to Rahel Blocher, daughter of the politician and entrepreneur Christoph Blocher , thereby ending his attempt to reorganize the Basler Zeitung. He resigned as Chairman of the Board of Directors and as a publisher.
Private
Suter is married, has a son and lives in Basel.
literature
- Claire-Lise Jaquier, Peter Lattmann, Ignaz Miller: Moritz Suter (1943): high fliers with draft. Crossair. in pioneers. 11 companies that write Swiss economic history. Federal Office for Vocational Training and Technology in cooperation with universities and private industry, 1999
- Moritz Suter , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 48/2012 from November 27, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Web links
- Romeo Regenass: The Suter System. Portrait in: Tages-Anzeiger from October 23, 2012
- René Lüchinger : The Icarus of Swiss aviation. Portrait in: Basler Zeitung from October 23, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ Professional amateur: Robert Suter has died. In: Basler Zeitung . June 12, 2008.
- ↑ a b Carpatair Board of Directors ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed October 1, 2010)
- ↑ a b Federal Prosecutor accepts Crossair judgment in: NZZ Online from January 26, 2009
- ↑ All acquittals in the Crossair trial in: NZZ Online from May 16, 2008
- ↑ Moritz Suter takes over the «Basler Zeitung» Interview with Moritz Suter in: Basler Zeitung of November 24, 2010
- ↑ Suter buys “Basler Zeitung” and ends Blocher's mandate in: Tages-Anzeiger from November 24, 2010
- ↑ Basler Zeitung: Big change ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Video contribution in: 10vor10 from November 24, 2010 (approx. 8 minutes)
- ↑ Moritz Suter sells “Basler Zeitung” shares to Blocher subsidiary. In: Basellandschaftliche Zeitung of December 12, 2011
- ↑ Christian Mensch: Expropriated newspaper? The history of the «Basler Zeitung» - a lesson on media change. Schwabe, Basel 2012, ISBN 978-3-7965-2840-8 . With an afterword by Kurt Imhof . (Excerpt.) ( Memento from June 3, 2012 on WebCite )
- ↑ Iwan Städler: Suter transferred the house to the woman. In: Tages-Anzeiger of October 22, 2012
- ^ Daniel Ryser : More Basel, less folklore. In: WOZ Die Wochenzeitung 48/2010 from December 2, 2010
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Suter, Moritz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss entrepreneur and pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |