Swissair Asia

Swissair Asia
IATA ICAO Call sign
SR SWR SWISSAIR
Founded18 January 1995 (1995-01-18)
Commenced operations7 April 1995 (1995-04-07)
Ceased operationsOctober 2001 (2001-10)
Focus cities
Frequent-flyer programQualiflyer
Fleet size2
Destinations3
Parent companySwissair
Swissair Asia
Traditional Chinese瑞士亞洲航空
Simplified Chinese瑞士亚洲航空
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinRuìshì Yàzhōu Hángkōng
Wade–GilesJui-shih Ya-chou Hang-k'ung
Southern Min
Hokkien POJSūi-sū A-chiu Hâng-khong

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.

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 "" (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

Europe

Fleet


Swissair Asia operated the following aircraft:

Swissair Asia Fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
F C Y Total
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 2 12 49 180 241
Total 2

See also

References

  1. ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 28 March-3 April 2000. [1]-[2].
  2. ^ Aircraft & Aerospace. Vol. 75. Peter Isaacson Publications Pty. Limited. 1995. p. 8.
  3. ^ "Swissair Asia history from Europe, Switzerland". Airline History. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  4. ^ "Swissair Asia". Sanaesakamoto. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Sanae Sakamoto: "Tao and Zen"" (PDF). Xlaudiageiser.ch. Retrieved 7 November 2021.