April 2000 - Eric Honegger succeeds Hannes Goetz as chairman of SAirGroup and is later to have run-ins with group president Philippe Bruggisser.
July 2000 - Swissair president Jeffrey Katz leaves to join US online travel agent Orbitz. Bruggisser takes on Katz's role.
22 November 2000 - At a stormy board room meeting, the group's strategy and financial situation are discussed, but no decisions made.
23 January 2001 - Bruggisser leaves and Moritz Suter, founding president of regional Crossair, becomes head of the group's airline division. Honegger takes over Bruggisser's group role. Crossair's chief operating officer André Dosé assumes Suter's former position at the regional.
7 March 2001 - Suter resigns.
9 March 2001 - Entire board resigns apart from Mario Corti, chief financial officer at food group Nestle.
15 March 2001 - Corti appointed chairman and chief executive at SAirGroup.
April 2001 - The SAirGroup announced a net loss of $1.7 billion for the financial year, largely made up of provisions for its investments in its Belgian, French and German airline interests.
June 2001 - AOM/Air Liberte file for bankruptcy. Corti rules out further investments in Sabena.
July 2001- Corti announces that Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Citibank agreed to a $560 million credit line and says that Swissair has "more than sufficient" liquidity. He announces the sale of some non-core businesses.
24 September 2001 - Swissair and Crossair merged into new Swiss Air Lines division, headed by Dosé. Swissair announces that it is to reduce its long-haul fleet by 25% by 2004 and aims to reduce the amount of transfer traffic at Zurich from 60% to less than 40%.
1 October 2001 - Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse acquire 70% of Crossair as attempts are made for the latter to acquire the majority of the core Swissair airline. The rest of the group files for court protection.
2 October 2001 -Swissair's fleet is gradually grounded throughout the day as the carrier fails to pay its bills.
3 October 2001 - Swissair shares lose nearly all their value.
22 October 2001 - Swiss Government announces that there is sufficient private capital to proceed with the Crossair-led rescue plan.
Source: Airline Business
