Editing Swissair (section)

=== "The flying bank" ===
[[File:SR Caravelle.jpg|thumb|Sud Aviation Caravelle (1961)]]

After the 1960s, air traffic increased quickly and allowed many airlines—many of which were [[monopoly|quasi-monopolists]] on their routes—to yield high revenues. Swissair profited from its well-established reputation as a quality airline and from the fact that the political neutrality of Switzerland allowed the company to fly to exotic and lucrative destinations in Africa, the Middle East, South America and the Far East. In geographic terms, the central position of Switzerland in Europe helped it generate revenue from transfer passengers. By the early 1970s, Swissair was becoming known as "the flying bank", appealing to the large [[hidden asset]]s and the huge liquidity Swissair had. Second, "flying bank" was the designation for a corporate group that cared more about financial management than about flying aeroplanes.<ref name="Keimzelle" />

With the beginning of deregulation and liberalisation in the late 1970s, airlines felt growing financial pressure. In 1978, [[Moritz Suter]] founded a regional airline named [[Crossair]], which put Swissair under additional stress. To counter these changes, Swissair invested their large financial reserves into [[takeover]]s and into flight-related trades like baggage handling, catering, aircraft maintenance, and duty-free stores. This strategy diversified economic risks at the expense of the core business of Swissair: commercial aviation.

Due to a 12-day global flight ban for the DC-10 imposed by the US [[Federal Aviation Administration]] after the crash of [[American Airlines Flight 191]] on 25 May 1979, a sizable portion of the long-haul fleet was on the ground. On October 7, after landing in Athens, [[Swissair Flight 316|a DC-8 overran the runway and caught fire]], killing 14 passengers. [[1979 oil crisis|By the end of that year, kerosene prices had doubled]], and fuel costs had increased from 12% to 16% of total costs. Swissair was the first to order the [[Airbus A310]] designed with a two-man cockpit for more traffic-tight short distances and on shorter medium distances, and accepted options for 10 more units. Another Boeing 747 was ordered. Dublin was added to the route network as a new destination, but service to Beirut had to be discontinued in mid-July due to the political turmoil in Lebanon.

Swissair was able to outperform the competition in a year that experts deemed to be the worst in the history of civil aviation. In contrast to other airlines, which began to offer a second-tier [[Business class|executive class]], the proven cabin division into first and economy classes was maintained. The short-haul fleet was renewed with the [[MD-81]] (DC-9-81) introduction. This type of aircraft partially replaced the older and smaller DC-9. In addition, modern, fuel-saving aircraft, such as five new Boeing 747s with extended upper decks and two DC-10-30s with a longer range, were ordered. With the connection of Zurich Airport to the national railway network, bus delivery services from Zürich were discontinued. Air passengers were already able to check their luggage at the rail station. The route network was expanded with service to Jakarta, but flights to Tehran and Baghdad had to be suspended after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war. By the end of 1980, Swissair was represented in 196 cities. New representations or points of sale were opened in Luxembourg, Ulm, Ottawa, Raleigh, Westchester, Valparaíso, Jubil, Sanaa, and Salisbury/Harare. Under the name [[Swissôtel]], the [[Hotel President Wilson|hotels Président]] in Geneva, [[Swissôtel Zürich|International]] in Zürich, [[Drake Hotel (New York City)|Drake]] in New York, and [[Hotel Bellevue Palace|Bellevue Palace]] in Bern were administratively combined.