Swissair was founded in 1931 with the merger of two smaller Swiss airlines: Ad Astra, a loss-making regional carrier, and the more profitable Balair. The result was Swiss Air Transport Company, although the name was soon shortened to Swissair. The new airline had a mixed fleet, but it quickly established a reputation for operating the latest aircraft despite restricting its operations to the summer months.
In April 1932 – less than 12 months since Ad Astra and Balair had merged, the carrier took delivery of the first of a pair of two Lockheed Model 9 Orions – the first US-built airliners to be bought by a European carrier. The Orions quickly gained a reputation for speed and reliability and operated mainly on what became the airline’s ‘Blue Riband’ route between Zurich, Munich and Vienna.
In April 1934, a twin-engined, 14-seat Curtiss AT-32 Condor was acquired new from the manufacturer at a cost of 191,131 Swiss Francs (£616,730 today). The Wright SGR-1820 Cyclone-powered airliner had been purchased for use, primarily, on the Zurich-Stuttgart-Leipzig-Berlin link. When introducing the AT-32, Swissair became the first European airline to employ a stewardess to tend to passengers’ needs. However, the airliner, HB-LAP (c/n 53), w…
