- During the Corona crisis, the federal government supported the Swiss aviation industry.
- Now the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) says: The federal government made money by supporting the aviation industry – by August 2021 alone it was around 32 million francs.
- This is thanks to interest that the supported companies had to pay.
The Confederation guaranteed loans of CHF 1,275 billion for airline companies. It provided a total of CHF 600 million for aviation-related operations, and granted SR Technics (SRT) a default guarantee of a maximum of CHF 79 million.
In the summer of 2020, contracts were signed with Swiss and SRT, as the SFAO writes in a report published on Monday. By the end of August 2021, the federal government had received CHF 32 million as a result of its commitment.
Interest was to be paid on loans taken out. So-called commitment fees, a provision commission, are due on undrawn credit lines and a one-off participation fee upon conclusion of the contract. The federal government receives a share of this income. Swiss and its sister company Edelweiss repaid the guaranteed loan in early June 2022.
criticism of supervision
The Federal Office for Civil Aviation (Bazl) was responsible for overseeing support for aviation during the pandemic, as the SFAO wrote. However, despite an appropriate organization and clear regulations, it lacked a risk-based supervisory concept and formalized quality assurance.
The SFAO also has doubts about the independence and usefulness of the Aviation Foundation, which was set up in 2020 and has since been dissolved. She had to monitor whether Swiss and Edelweiss adhered to the location requirements associated with the guaranteed loans.
For the Bazl, this criticism of the foundation, in which the federal government was represented, is incomprehensible. In the 2021 annual report and in the final report, the Luftfahrtstiftung found that Swiss and Edelweiss had met the conditions throughout the loan term, the Bazl wrote in a statement.