Swiss Aviation Foundation

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The Swiss Aviation Foundation SLS watched over the independence of the Swiss airline Swiss in the Lufthansa group from October 2005 until the end of October 2015 . This task was assigned to the SLS in a joint declaration by Lufthansa and the Swiss Federal Council .

founding

The foundation was established on October 3, 2005. Before that, the general assembly of Swiss on May 19, 2005 decided to sell it to the Lufthansa Group. The merger aroused fears in Switzerland that Swiss, as a Lufthansa subsidiary, could disappear in the long term as a characteristic of Switzerland's identity, lose its independence and the economically important connections to intercontinental air traffic.

tasks

For the purpose of the foundation, various instruments were made available to SLS to monitor the independence of Swiss and its intercontinental connections:

  • Supporting the development of air traffic and the air traffic structure in Switzerland with special consideration of connectivity (interests in continental and intercontinental direct flights);
  • Public statements on general questions of air traffic in Switzerland and, after prior and appropriate consultation with Lufthansa and Swiss, on their business policy and related issues;
  • Submission of confidential recommendations to the management of Swiss and the Executive Board of Lufthansa on fundamental, strategic issues of the common integration goals;
  • Submitting nominations for two members of the Swiss Board of Directors;
  • Submit an election proposal for a member of the Lufthansa Supervisory Board.

Board of Trustees

For the first five years, the SLS was chaired by Bruno Gehrig , and since November 2010 by Moritz Leuenberger .

Claudio Generali has been the vice-president since the beginning , the other members were Thomas Bieger , Conrad Meyer and the directors of the Federal Office for Civil Aviation as representatives of the federal office - first Raymond Cron, from 2009 his successor Peter Müller. As an independent observer, Lufthansa determined Elbe with the consent of Swiss Frank .

activity

The Board of Trustees made election proposals for members of the Swiss Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa, worked towards the independence of Swiss in the Lufthansa Group and monitored the connection of Swiss air traffic to international destinations.

For this purpose, the Board of Trustees received quarterly information on the course of business at Swiss. In confidential discussions he regularly made use of his right of recommendation.

The Board of Trustees published its final assessment of the situation at a media conference on August 24, 2015 in the presence of Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard and representatives of Swiss and Lufthansa and later in its final report from October 2015.

Nominations

As part of its right to propose a candidate for the Swiss Board of Directors and for the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG in the event of a vacancy, the Board of Trustees nominated

  • in June 2007 Jacques Aigrain, member of the Swiss Board of Directors for the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG
  • in November 2010 its then President Bruno Gehrig as a new member (and designated President) of the Board of Directors of Swiss;
  • in November 2011 Monika Ribar as a new member of the Board of Directors of Swiss and from 2014 to the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa;
  • in June 2015 Christoph Franz as a member of the Board of Directors of Swiss.

Swiss independence within the Lufthansa group

In order to be able to independently assess the development of air traffic in Switzerland and especially the Zurich hub, the Board of Trustees commissioned the Center for Aviation Competence (CFAC) of the University of St. Gallen to monitor traffic flows at Zurich Airport and the other two from 2006 Lufthansa Group's hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

It turned out that the original fears that the takeover by the Lufthansa Group would neglect Swiss interests could be avoided. During the ten years of monitoring by the SLS, Swiss opened 26 new European and 6 new intercontinental connections and carried around 60% more passengers. The business result improved from a loss of 14 million francs in 2005 to a profit of 347 million francs in 2014 and around 1,500 additional jobs were created at Swiss alone.

In July 2014, the Board of Trustees also dealt with the withdrawal of Swiss from Basel-Mulhouse. The President of the Foundation publicly criticized this withdrawal, but also stated that nine years after the foundation was founded, for many Swiss people “the price and availability of flights have become more important than the cross on the tail fin”.

Connection of Switzerland to intercontinental air traffic

The development of the intercontinental connection depends to a large extent on the national and regional infrastructure. The Board of Trustees therefore devoted itself at an early stage to the political discussions on the German flight restrictions on Zurich Airport and on the various restriction initiatives in the Canton of Zurich. He always emphasized that the competitiveness of the entire Swiss hub system had to be assessed from a long-term overall perspective.

From 2012, the Board of Trustees increasingly focused on the fierce competitive situation in which Swiss had to assert itself against the new airlines in the Gulf States and Istanbul Airport. Their financially and politically favorable framework conditions put all airlines in Europe under great pressure. This threat was not yet an issue in the formulation of the objectives of the SLS.

implementation

The objectives of the original purpose of the foundation, to enable Switzerland to have good air transport connections despite being part of the Lufthansa Group, and to maintain its independence within the Group, were achieved and maintained by the end of the foundation in October 2015: Swiss air transport was well connected to the most important worldwide destinations Swiss had considerable entrepreneurial freedom of action. In the final report, SLS President Moritz Leuenberger summed up: “The goals of the SLS have been achieved. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the situation in such a volatile market as that of air traffic will change quickly and that the concerns of the foundation's original purpose can become topical again at any time. It will therefore be imperative that DETEC and the FOCA monitor further developments and take appropriate precautions so that they can react if necessary. "

The goals pursued by the SLS will be pursued after the end of the foundation within the framework of the Swiss Aviation Leadership Team (SALT) and the Aviation Platform . DETEC also wants to evaluate the framework conditions for Switzerland as an air location as part of a biennial monitoring program and propose measures to the Federal Council and Parliament if necessary.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ [2]