Crossair Europe

Crossair Europe (also known as European Continental Airways) was an airline headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in Saint-Louis, Haut Rhin, France, near Basel, Switzerland.^[1] It operated scheduled services to destinations in Italy and France.

In 1998, Crossair launched Crossair Europe, as a subsidiary airline, operating flights from the French side of EuroAirport to circumvent challenges of European Union restrictions on Swiss air traffic and routes.^[2][3][4] Initial flights were offered to Marseilles, Milan and Venice, starting in April 1998.^[5] Swissair held a majority stake of 60% in the new airline, whilst Crossair retained 40%.^[6] Initially Crossair Europe operated dry-lease Saab 340B aircraft, later moving to the larger Saab 2000 models.^[7] The airline helped boost Crossair's 1998 passenger total to a record 4.43 million.^[8] In combination with Crossair, Swissair boosted destinations served from Basel to 71 in 2000 (up from 39 Crossair destinations in 1990).^[9]

When Swissair became Swiss International Airlines, Crossair Europe remained owned by the new airline as the 99.9% shareholder.^[10] In March 2005 it was announced that Crossair Europe would be closed by the end of the month and their routes were taken over by Swiss.^[11][12]

Crossair Europe utilized a similar livery to Crossair, predominantly white aircraft with red and blue icons across the fuselage. The tailfin however, retained the red of the Swiss national flag, but replaced with a white arrow, with a European Union star circle behind. The airline also later utilized planes with a "Eurocross" branding across the fuselage, with the European Union flag given prominence on the tail.

During its eight-year existence, Crossair Europe operated the following aircraft:

• List of defunct airlines of France