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Philippe Bruggisser (born 11 September 1948 in Wohlen, Aargau) is a Swiss manager in the airline industry. In 1996 and 2000/01 he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Swissair and President of the SAir Group Executive Committee in the period from 1997 to 2001. The growth strategy pursued by him, which had aimed at establishing an own aviation alliance was largely responsible for the bankruptcy of Swissair in October 2001.
After attending primary school and the district school in Wohlen, he attended a seminary in Wettingen from 1964 to 1969, interrupted by a one-year stay as a visiting student in the United States. He then studied economics at the University of Basel as well as business and law at the University of Geneva. His professional career began in 1976 as Assistant Director-General of the Swiss Bank Corporation.
In 1979, Bruggisser joined Swissair and worked as a controller. In 1984, he was appointed chief financial officer of the Swissair North America sector, and from 1987 to 1990 he was head of the controlling department. After a short stint as project manager of a profit improvement program, he took over the directorate chairman's post of Swissair Holdings AG in 1991, a position he held until 1995. In addition, from 1992 to 1994, he was a member of Swissair's management. Under Bruggisser's leadership Swissair acquired the catering section of SAS Scandinavian Airlines. In 1995 he was a member of the Swissair Group Executive Committee.
In 1996, Bruggisser took over as chief operating officer for the operational management of the Group and also served as Deputy Chief Executive Officer. The following year, he undertook a comprehensive restructuring of the Group, the SAirGroup was created with Swissair now being one of several subsidiaries. In 1997, Bruggisser assumed the post of Executive President, the operational management of Swissair. After the project "Alcazar" - a group of Swissair, KLM, SAS and Austrian Airlines - had failed in 1993, he followed the advice of the management consultant McKinsey to up SAir's own alliance. This risky "Hunter Strategy" provided for the purchase of airline companies and investments.
The first step in 1996 was a stake in Belgium's Sabena. Under the leadership of Swissair, the airline alliance Qualiflyer Group was founded in 1998. Other interests in the Italian Volare, Air Littoral of France and the German LTU were added. Initially positive annual results in 1997 and 1998 spurred the board to continue the strategy. The crash of Swissair Flight 111 overshadowed the fiscal year 1998. Delta Air Lines announced in 1999 the interruption of the cooperation with Swissair and Austrian Airlines and left the Qualiflyer Group.
Despite these setbacks, Bruggisser held steadfastly to the Hunter strategy. It was followed by investments in the South African Airways, the French companies AOM, Air Littoral and Air Liberté, the Italian Air Europe and the LOT Polish Airlines. He also initiated the purchase of interests in the Portuguese companies TAP and Portugália. Most of these companies were in need of recapitalisation, so in addition to the purchase price, capital for restructuring had to be invested.
In July 2000, Bruggisser temporarily took over the operational management of Swissair. He then came under public pressure, when the ailing financial situation of the SAir Group became known. On average, the daily loss of Swissair and Sabena was recorded at about one million CHF each, with another million going every day into LTU and the French interests. The administrative board began to order exit scenarios from the received shares in other airlines and dismissed Bruggisser in January 2001 with immediate effect. His successors, Moritz Suter and Mario Corti could not prevent the collapse of the Group in October 2001 and its liquidation in March 2002.
As a result, the press published that Bruggisser was primarily responsible for the expansion and the demise of Swissair. [1] Bruggisser initially largely withdrew from public life. In November 2006, he failed in his attempt to be elected to the Board of the South African Airways.
The prosecutor of the Canton of Zurich brought charges against Bruggisser and another 18 people in March 2006 in connection with the Swissair bankruptcy case. [2] They were accused of forging documents, mismanagement and damage to creditors among other things. Bruggisser was charged with false certification.
From 2009 to 2010 Brugisser was again active in the aviation industry as CEO and chairman of VistaJet.
Cargolux, legally Cargolux Airlines International S.A., is a Luxembourgish flag carrier cargo airline with its headquarters and hub at Luxembourg Airport. With a global network, it is among the largest scheduled all-cargo airlines in the world. Charter flights and third party maintenance are also operated. It has 85 offices in over 50 countries as of 2018, and operates a global trucking network to more than 250 destinations.
Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. SAS is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark-Norway-Sweden. Part of the SAS Group and headquartered at the SAS Frösundavik Office Building in Solna, Sweden, the airline operates 180 aircraft to 90 destinations. The airline's main hub is at Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport, with connections to 109 destinations around the world. Stockholm Arlanda Airport is the second largest hub, with Oslo Airport, Gardermoen being the third major hub of SAS. Minor hubs also exist at Bergen Airport, Flesland, Göteborg Landvetter Airport, Stavanger Airport, Sola, and Trondheim Airport, Værnes. SAS Cargo is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines and its main office is at Copenhagen Airport.
Swiss International Air Lines AG, colloquially known as SWISS, is the flag carrier of Switzerland and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. It operates scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Zurich Airport serves as its sole hub and Geneva Airport as a focus city. The airline was formed following the bankruptcy in 2002 of Swissair, Switzerland's then-flag carrier. The new airline was built around what had been Swissair's regional subsidiary, Crossair. Swiss retains Crossair's IATA code LX. It assumed Swissair's old ICAO code of SWR, to maintain international traffic rights. It is a member of Star Alliance and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Its headquarters are at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg near Basel, Switzerland, and an office at Zurich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland. The company's registered office is in Basel.
The Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its bankruptcy in 2001, SN Brussels Airlines was formed through a takeover of former subsidiary Delta Air Transport and took over part of Sabena's assets in February 2002, which became Brussels Airlines after a merger with Virgin Express in March 2007. The airline's corporate headquarters were located in the Sabena House on the grounds of Brussels Airport in Zaventem.
Swissair was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI is the flag carrier of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate headquarters in Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Chatuchak district, Bangkok, and primarily operates from Suvarnabhumi Airport. THAI is a founding member of the Star Alliance. The airline is the second-largest shareholder of the low-cost carrier Nok Air with a 15.94 per cent stake (2020), and it launched a regional carrier under the name Thai Smile in the middle of 2012 using the new Airbus A320 aircraft. In 2023, it was announced that Thai Smile would be merged back into Thai Airways.
Société Belge des Transports par Air SA, known by its short form Sobelair, was a Belgian charter airline from that operated from 1946 to 2004. It was headquartered in Brussels and operated mostly non-scheduled passenger and cargo flights out of Brussels Airport.
Francisco Anthony "Frank" Lorenzo is an American businessman. He managed Continental Airlines and Texas International Airlines between 1972 and 1990, through airline deregulation. Lorenzo also led the creation and management of the holding company for the group, Texas Air Corporation, through which New York Air was formed in 1980 and Eastern Air Lines was acquired in 1986, as well as Frontier Airlines and People Express Airlines.
Air Alps,, was an Austrian regional airline based in Innsbruck.
Air Littoral was a French regional airline based in Montpellier–Méditerranée Airport that operated from 1972 to 2004. The airline operated domestic services as well as a small amount of regional routes. The airline also operated feeder services on behalf of Air France.
Wings Alliance was the working name of a proposed airline alliance to be anchored by the American carriers Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines of USA with the European flag carriers KLM of the Netherlands and Italy's Alitalia. Although these airlines cooperated with one another through code-sharing and frequent flyer program coordination, no formal association was ever announced. It was rendered superfluous in September 2004 when most of its participants joined the SkyTeam alliance.
Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its hub. As of July 2016, the airline flew to six domestic and more than 120 international year-round and seasonal destinations in 55 countries and is a member of the Star Alliance.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) was a trade body that brought together 22 major airlines, and was the voice of the European airline industry for over 60 years. It shut down in the end of 2016.
Qualiflyer was a frequent-flyer program and, to some extent, an airline alliance created in April 1992 by Austrian Airlines, Crossair and Swissair. When Swissair began acquiring stakes in other European airlines in 1998, Qualiflyer was extended to become their frequent flyer programs as well. This spawned the alliance known as The Qualiflyer Group. With the failure of Swissair in 2002, the group dissolved along with the program and a company was formed to give each former member airline an individual frequent-flyer program.
Christoph R. Mueller is a German businessman. From 2016 to 2019, he was chief digital and innovation officer of Emirates Group. He is the former chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines. With over 25 years' experience as a turnaround specialist in the aviation, logistic and tourism industry, Mueller has been widely credited with leading the financial recovery of Aer Lingus.
The Atlantic Excellence was a trans-Atlantic airline alliance between Swissair, Delta Air Lines, Sabena and Austrian Airlines that was formed in 1997 and disbanded in 1999-2000. The dissolution of the code share agreement came soon after an announcement by Delta Air Lines that it was starting cooperative arrangements with Air France which led into the formation of the Skyteam alliance. SAirGroup had held negotiations with American Airlines about extending their cooperative arrangements, with both Swissair and Sabena intending to commence code-share services on North Atlantic routes with American Airlines which led into Qualiflyer.
James Reginald Hogan, is an Australian airline executive. Between 2006 and mid-2017, he was the President and CEO of Etihad Airways, one of the national airlines of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was also CEO of Arab Gulf airlines, Gulf Air.
Alcazar was a 1993 proposal to merge Austrian Airlines, KLM, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), and Swissair to create Symphony, which would have been Europe's largest airline.
Thomas W. Horton is a partner of Global Infrastructure Partners and is lead director at Walmart Inc. and General Electric Corp.
Maersk Air was a Danish airline that operated between 1969 and 2005. Owned by the eponymous A. P. Møller–Mærsk Group, it operated a mix of scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo services. Headquartered at Dragør, its main operating bases were Copenhagen Airport, Billund Airport and Esbjerg Airport. The airline had offshore helicopter operations from 1975 to 1999 and had three airline subsidiaries: Maersk Air UK, Maersk Commuter and Star Air.
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