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Swiss International Air Lines was formed after the 2001 bankruptcy of Swissair, Switzerland's former flag carrier. The failed airline's biggest creditors, Credit Suisse and UBS, arranged to sell Swissair's assets to Crossair, the regional counterpart to the transatlantic Swissair (both Swissair and Crossair were under the same holding company, called SRGroup). Crossair then changed its name to swiss, and the new national airline started its operations on March 31, 2002.
Swiss International Airlines operates mainly out of Zurich International Airport in Zürich, Switzerland and Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss International Airlines uses the IATA Call Code LX, which it inherited from Crossair (Swissair's code was SR).
After two series of significant downsizing, Swiss currently operates a fleet of 81 aircraft, of which 20 are long-haul, 22 medium-haul, and 39 regional aircraft. The following is a list of the current SWISS fleet as per January 2004:
After almost a year of disputes, Swiss has finally joined the oneworld Airline alliance, after having been blocked by British Airways, with which Swiss competes on many long-haul routes.