Crossair Board Of Directors Resigns In EGM Shake-Up

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

07 December 2001

A Crossair extraordinary general meeting was held yesterday in St Jacques stadium, Basel to determine a fresh course ahead for the future of Switzerland's civil aviation industry. During the meeting Crossair's board of directors stepped down to make way for a new board as it became a sad day for entrepreneur Moritz Suter, founder and now former chairman of Crossair who told the 4,500 shareholders attending the extraordinary session: 'I had a dream, which became Crossair.'

The resignation of the board has been on the cards for some time now and is no surprise to observers although Suter had fought for weeks to maintain his seat on the board. However, Rainer Gut, Nestle chairman and labelled as Switzerland's most powerful businessman by some, leads the steering committee to monitor the rescue strategy for Swissair and Crossair, and he was bitterly opposed to Suter's bid to remain on the board.

Gut is believed to have been concerned that Suter's presence would stand in the way of attempts to integrating the two airlines which have very different business philosophies. He is said to have offered Suter the post of honorary president of the airline but Suter refused in no uncertain terms.

Although Suter could not have been forced to resign, his term expires next year, he would have found it virtually impossible to continue with so many powerful people demanding his resignation - Gut is heavily supported by the company's directors: Peter Forstmoser (Swiss Re chairman); Jens Alder (CEO Swisscom); and Peter Siegenthgaler (leading Swiss economist and government administrator).

The steering committee has proposed a new board comprising eleven members with Pieter Bouw, a former head of the Netherlands airline KLM, to replace Suter as chairman. Crossair will be operated as the Swiss national airline with 52 Swissair carriers as part of its fleet and it is expected that around SFr4 billion ($2.4 billion) will be injected into the company.

Recommended