Mario Corti, President of SWISSAIR, which has suspended payment of its debts, has announced that the company would be restructured and that on 1 November 2001 CROSSAIR will become the national flag carrier. Two thirds of SWISSAIR's aviation activities will be taken over by regional airline CROSSAIR (its subsidiary to date). The Swiss banks UBS and CREDIT SUISSE will buy SWISSAIR's 70.35% stake in CROSSAIR for around 260 million Swiss francs and are planning other emergency measures to save the company, a plan that will cost the banks 1.36 billion CHF in total. After this transaction, UBS will own 51% of CROSSAIR and CREDIT SUISSE 49%. In order to survive, the new venture will have to cut a third of its fleet and its workforce (in other words 2560 jobs, 1750 of them in Switzerland) and sell off all its foreign holdings. Mr Corti signalled that SWISSAIR was unable to make the payments promised to its subsidiaries AOM-AIR LIBERTE and SABENA. SWISSAIR will therefore not be honouring its commitment to finance 60% of SABENA's capital in line with the agreements it signed with the Belgian government (the other SABENA shareholder). The Reuters agency reports that the Belgian government has raised the possibility of taking SWISSAIR to court, along "maybe" with UBS and CREDIT SUISSE (see IE of 20 July in particular).