ABSTRACT
Swissair’s rapid decline from being one of the industries’ most renowned carriers into bankruptcy was on the one hand the inevitable consequence of a fundamentally ill-conceived alliance strategy—rather than just a badly implemented one—that undermined Swissair’s reputation as a high-quality carrier. On the other hand, the company’s inability to coordinate effectively its own operations with those of Crossair, its regional subsidiary was another key factor in its demise. However, we hold that while yearlong mismanagement was indeed the driving force behind Swissair’s demise, exogenous factors encouraged and compounded it. These include, first and foremost, the Swiss people’s rejection of the European Economic Area Treaty in a 1992 referendum, Switzerland’s protectionist aviation policy, and media failure.
