Swissair Asia
Defunct airline of Switzerland and Taiwan (1995–2001)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Swissair Asia AG (Chinese: 瑞士亞洲航空) was a subsidiary of Swissair founded due to the legal status of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and territory disputes with the People's Republic of China in order to allow Swissair to continue flying to Taiwan from Switzerland.[clarification needed]
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| Founded | 18 January 1995 | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 7 April 1995 | ||||||
| Ceased operations | October 2001 | ||||||
| Focus cities | |||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Qualiflyer | ||||||
| Fleet size | 2 | ||||||
| Destinations | 3 | ||||||
| Parent company | Swissair | ||||||
| Swissair Asia | |||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 瑞士亞洲航空 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 瑞士亚洲航空 | ||||||||||||
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History
Swissair Asia was formed to serve Taipei, Taiwan, within the Republic of China, while Swissair maintained service to the People's Republic of China.[1] It began operating a twice-weekly service between Zürich and Taipei via Bangkok on 7 April 1995.[2] The airline ceased operations when the parent company Swissair went bankrupt in 2001;[3] no successor airline was organized by Swissair's own successor, Swiss International Air Lines, which does not operate flights to Taipei (either directly or under a subsidiary).
Livery
The aircraft used by Swissair Asia had the Chinese character "瑞" (ruì), the Chinese character for "propitious" or "lucky" and first character in the phonetic (in southern Chinese languages) translation of Switzerland, "瑞士" (Jyutping: seoi6 si6; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Sui-sṳ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sūi-sū; Pinyin: Ruìshì), on the tail fin instead of the Swiss cross. The kanji character was designed by the Basel-based Japanese calligrapher Sanae Sakamoto (坂本 早苗, Sakamoto Sanae).[4][5]
Destinations
Asia
Thailand
- Bangkok – Don Mueang International Airport (Stop-over)
Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Taipei – Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (Focus city)
Europe
Switzerland
- Zurich – Zurich Airport (Focus city)
Fleet
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Swissair Asia operated the following aircraft:
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | C | Y | Total | ||||
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11 | 2 | — | 12 | 49 | 180 | 241 | |
| Total | 2 | — | |||||