Crossair - CRX

.../> The question about flying Crossair is what you rate higher - service or safety.

---------------------------
FLEET & FLIGHT SAFETY
---------------------------

Crossair currently operates a fleet of 77 aircraft, comprised of the following types:
- Boeing MD 82s & 83s, 150-seater midrange jets
(originally McDonnell Douglas)
- AVRO Regional Jets ARJ 85 & 100 (successor of the BAe 146)
...

The Crossair fleet is currently undergoing a complete renewal. The turboprops will be fully replaced until 2006 by Embraer 145 Regional Jets, a handful of which have already been put in service. A little later, the ARJs will be replaced by Embraer 170s & 190s.

Crossair can build on its experience as a launching customer of many regional aircraft to date, and is intensively involved in the development of the Embraer ... more

The Swiss airline Crossair, a sister company of Swissair, has recovered from its fatal accident in January 2000 and once again sets out to be Europe's best regional airline. And their service standards indicate that they may achieve this goal.

I have flown with them around ten times in the last three years, mostly between Germany and Switzerland, and one some routes to the Caucasus, operated on behalf of Swissair. On all occasions I have been very satisfied with their product and service, both in Business and Economy Class. I haven't tried their charter flights, though.

The question about flying Crossair is what you rate higher - service or safety.

---------------------------
FLEET & FLIGHT SAFETY
---------------------------

Crossair currently operates a fleet of 77 aircraft, comprised of the following types:
- Boeing MD 82s & 83s, 150-seater midrange jets
(originally McDonnell Douglas)
- AVRO Regional Jets ARJ 85 & 100 (successor of the BAe 146)
- Saab 340 and 2000 turboprops with 33 and 50 seats

The Crossair fleet is currently undergoing a complete renewal. The turboprops will be fully replaced until 2006 by Embraer 145 Regional Jets, a handful of which have already been put in service. A little later, the ARJs will be replaced by Embraer 170s & 190s.

Crossair can build on its experience as a launching customer of many regional aircraft to date, and is intensively involved in the development of the Embraer airliners.

In order to reach greater communality and inter-operation capability with Swissair, the Boeing MDs will also be replaced by Airbus 319s and 320s.

Flight safety has been an issue at Crossair even before the crash in 2000, mainly due to its fleet mix. The Boeing MDs have been problematic (not only with Crossair), just recently they all had to be fitted with a new mechanical set for the tail unit rudder, after Boeing itself had spotted safety problems.

I was myself booked on a problematic flight once. I was to fly from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Zurich, onboard a Crossair MD 83, operated on behalf of Swissair. Yet our departure was six hours delayed, because the plane had to make an emergency landing in Vienna on the way to Tbilisi because some navigation systems had failed, as we were told.

On January 18, 2000, a Crossair Saab 34 crashed shortly after take off on a flight from Zurich to Dresden, Germany, killing all ten passengers and crew. The cause of the crash still hasn't been found, whether it was a technical failure of the aircraft itself, a maintenance problem, or human error.

The German aerospace journal, AERO International, has speculated that human error is the most probable cause, offering the following explanation: pilots of regional airlines often have type-ratings (licenses) for a wide range of jets and turboprops, and switch aircraft types frequently, sometimes several times per day. Due to the constant change of cockpit settings, they would be more likely to make mistakes. I don't know if that makes sense and don't know any pilots whom I could ask.

Crossair aircraft are maintained by SR Technics, the maintenance arm of Swissair. Swissair had a fatal accident itself - again with a McDonnell Douglas - when an MD 11 crashed near Halifax, Canada, enroute from New York to Geneva on September 2, 1998, killing all 215 passengers and 14 crew.

Again, the cause of the crash still hasn't been fully discovered, but seems to have been a cable fire in the onboard entertainment system.

The last thing I want to suggest is that Swissair and Crossair have a maintenance problem, or that McDonnell or Saab planes are generally less safe than other types. But I don't feel comfortable with the fact that the cause of the crashes hasn't been found yet, and thus could occur again.

Swissair and Crossair have invested heavily into flight safety and now probably have the toughest controls of any European airlines.

Nonetheless I stick to their flights with Airbus and AVRO aircraft, which I know are reliable workhorses flown by many airlines around the world. Once the fleet renewal is completed, the problem should be solved.

------------------------
PRODUCT & SERVICE
------------------------

On service aspects, Crossair is hard to be beaten by any other European regional airline. Best network, best comfort, best meals, friendliest service.

Crossair's main competitor is Lufthansa CityLine, a subsidiary of Lufthansa German Airlines, and to a lesser extend Tyrolean Airways, part of the Austrian Airlines Group, and Eurowings. Eurowings is a small German airline which until recently was flying for KLM and has now been partially acquired by Lufthansa, subject to EU approval.

1) NETWORK

Crossair has an extensive Europe wide network. Its main hub is the EuroAirport Basel / Mulhouse / Freiburg, the only airport which has terminals in two countries, Switzerland and France. Crossair has also founded a French subsidiary, Crossair Europe, in order to be granted domestic flight rights within the European Union.

Crossair connections at the EuroAirport are probably the best in the world, with a minimum transit time of 20 minutes between two flights. Punctuality is excellent due to the limited amount of traffic at this airport.

In addition to its own network, Crossair serves a variety of low density shorthaul routes on behalf of Swissair and with Swissair flight number (SR 3xxx) from Zurich, Geneva and Berne. Crossair also operates three long haul flights for Swissair from Zurich to Baku (Azerbaidjan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Jerevan (Armenia).

2) COMFORT

Although regional aircraft are generally narrow and rarely comfortable, Crossair has made the best out of it. Somehow they have managed to squeeze in that extra bit of space and have the widest (leather) seats of all regional airlines. They also leave more space between the seat rows, resulting in 5 seats less on an ARJ 85 compared to Lufthansa CityLine.

Crossair was the first European regional airline to introduce a two-class concept with Business and Economy, LH CityLine only followed last year. The seating configuration is however the same in both classes, i.e. 2 plus 3 in the ARJs and MDs, and 1 plus 2 in the Saabs and the Embraer 145.

Only the Saab turboprops are operated in one-class Business, so you can get a taste of premium service with a cheap Economy ticket.

One MD 83 has been fitted with an intercontinental Business Class set-up with sleeper seats in a 2 plus 2 configuration, to serve Swissair's 5 hours flights to the Caucasus.

3) MEALS

Meals onboard Crossair are generally better than Swissair's.

In Business Class, meals are always hot, no matter how short the flight (exception: domestic flights in Switzerland). On longhaul flights you even get two meals. A four course dinner and a two course breakfast on a five hours flight is quite something special.

Economy meals are hot or cold depending on duration of flight, but still better than Swissair's. On flights to Germany, for example, where Swissair has followed Lufthansa to serve only small roles in Economy, you still get a full meal from Crossair.

The collection of wines is very good, and includes monthly features from a different European region every month.

4) SERVICE

The cabin crew are always very friednly and attentive. Although Crossair is part of the same group as Swissair, there is none of the famous Swissair arrogance to be found among Crossair staff.

Corssair doesn't have it's own ground service staff, ground operations are operated by SAirports in Switzerland, and Swissair at airports abroad.

Internet service is ok, the website provides the usual timetable & booking functions, product and service information, and a link to the website of the Qualiflyer frequent traveller programme. Crossair's web address is simply www.crossair.com.

---------
PRICES
---------

Like Swissair's, the Business fares of Crossair are ridiculously high, especially to eastern Europe (around 30% higher than the competition), and there aren't many Business Specials.

There are however a lot of Economy Specials both on the website and with travel agents, among the cheapest of European quality airlines.

----------
VERDICT
----------

Crossair is Europe's best regional airline by product and service quality, deserving 4 to 5 stars for that. But it's hard to judge their safety record, although I'm sure they are doing their outmost in maintenance and technical services. Overall a GOOD rating, with some reservation.

-----------------------------------------------
© 2001 Hansjörg Gebel, Witten, Germany

 

...less