Zurich: Flagship Swiss International Air Lines will delist from the stock exchange this month, marking the end of an era after Germany's Lufthansa and its allies completed taking control of the company that replaced national icon Swissair.
Swiss International Air Lines took off in 2002 not least to rescue national pride, badly dented by the grounding of its failed predecessor Swissair, a premium carrier with a global reputation.
However, three years of cut-throat competition, rising fuel costs and a stumbling global economy meant that the airline not only failed to become profitable, it also did not deliver on its plans to be a cut above the rest as Swissair had been.
In March last year, German giant Lufthansa stepped in to take over Swiss, a final blow to sentiment in a country that still remembers the precise date of Swissair's grounding, October 2, 2001 as a black day of national embarrassment and tragedy.
Lufthansa agreed to buy Swiss in a deal valued at around 310 million euros ($374.7 million) and plans to integrate the airline fully.
Swissair, one of the world's best-known carriers, stopped flying in 2001 as the 70-year-old brand that symbolised Switzerland as much as chocolate and banking ran out of cash.
Just last week, Grounding, a film about Swissair's final days, hit the cinema screens and has been Zurich's talking point not just for former air hostesses, pilots, ground staff and grounded passengers but for the country as a whole.
Swiss was born in 2002 with a hefty cash injection from Swiss companies and the government by grafting regional carrier Crossair onto the remains of failed Swissair.
The aftermath to the September 11, 2001 attacks, air accidents, failed plans to joined an airline alliance and decisions by the Swiss management such as charging economy passengers for meals made the airline's early life tough.
