Swiss has become a jewel under the 15 years of Lufthansa leadership. The airline headquarters in Frankfurt primarily benefits from this. It received 1.7 billion from Zurich from 2017 to 2019 alone.
Now Lufthansa is bankrupt. And what do their managers do? The hollow hand. Just a few days after the outbreak of the Corona virus crisis, they are ready to go to the state to collect billions in tax money.
Now it should be ready. In Vienna, the Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines is begging from the government for 800 million euros.
In Bern, according to Tages-Anzeiger, there are 1.5 billion for Swiss and 500 million for Swissport and Gate Gourmet.
The latter belong to China conglomerates, so 500 million should flow there – all in the course of the Swiss or Lufthansa rescue.
What does the Swiss government demand in return? Not much. The jobs and the money should be used in Switzerland, it is said in the media.
In other words: no (large) job cuts, wages and investments in Zurich and Geneva, the two major national airports.
And otherwise? Nothing. Interest at best, but that is probably highly uncertain.
Bern actually wants to grant Lufthansa-Swiss a blank credit in the form of guarantees and sureties from Mr. and Mrs. Swiss.
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Good, over the top? Smart, naive?
The differences between Bern and Berlin, where the respective governments decide on the fate of Lufthansa Swiss, are completely different.
Bern cuddles up to the airline bosses. Berlin shows muscles.
If it ever needed an example to show how Switzerland works at a high level: Swiss rescue delivers it.
The Federal Council issues a billion check to the airline managers for a say. Berlin, on the other hand, ties its billion dollar aid to the requirement to have a say in the Supervisory Board.
The extent to which the aviation bosses don’t fit into the stuff was shown in the last few hours in which the negotiations developed into a crime thriller.
Like the Tages-Anzeiger, the NZZ and German media report, the Lufthansa bosses are examining a so-called “protective shield procedure”. This is a German version of our estate deferral.
Lufthansa would be led by an external administrator until it got back on its feet. Or – if it doesn’t work – going down the drain.
The group of Globus buyers René Benko did the same with its German department store chain. It’s about buying time.
In the case of Lufthansa, there is a big poker behind it. The managers of the aviation group threaten the government in Berlin with risking bankruptcy rather than tolerating the state in their own hut.
With the protective shield procedure there is the “possibility to get rid of numerous obligations towards suppliers and other creditors”, writes the NZZ.
“The pension burdens and unfavorable collective agreements would also be available in this scenario.”
If you stay tough, we will drop everyone – employees, suppliers, airports, creditors, including yours, of course, from the state.
Do you really want that?
The threat is clear. Berlin, in other words the German government, has so far been unimpressed.
The Berne federal councils, on the other hand, stand by the Swiss and Lufthansa bosses.
They just wait for Germany to decide the deal. Then they rescue Swiss and other aviation companies with a total of CHF 2 billion according to the Tages-Anzeiger.
Even better: According to a source, Swiss would currently pay its pilots 100 percent wages – despite zero work.
Where does the money come from =? 80 percent come from the short-time work fund, i.e. from the state. Swiss pays the remaining 20 percent from its own liquidity.
But that’s missing, why else does Swiss run to the government and demand billions?
Quite simply: In the logic of the aviation bosses, the taxpayer should use his money to pay all the wages for the Swiss pilots sitting on the ground.
Swiss left an inquiry unanswered yesterday.
Zurich finance director Ernst Stocker, SVP, made no secret of his frustration in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger today.
He was amazed that the proud Lufthansa Swiss Group, which had made hundreds of millions of profits every year with its Swiss subsidiary alone, had run out of money for a few days during the crisis.
That is “strange,” says the government councilor, who in conversation shows a healthy understanding of what the state should do in a crisis and what is the responsibility of the companies and their managers.
But Stocker doesn’t decide. The Federal Council does that.
There, with Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, a fellow party member of Stocker sits on the committee, who today also expresses his discomfort at the NZZ in the face of the billions of bailouts.
But instead of distributing money to Swiss & Co. to stop, Finance Minister Maurer looks at the billions in the SNB. They could reduce the deficit.
The central bank’s paper profits as a lifeline for once solid Switzerland: a new “highlight” every day.
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