Swiss-based regional carrier Darwin Airline has lodged a formal complaint with Switzerland’s Competition Commission (COMCO), alleging abusive and anti-competitive behaviour by the country’s flag carrier Swiss International Air Lines.

The airline alleges that the behaviour of Swiss followed the early 2014 announcement that it had concluded an agreement through which United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways would acquire a 33.3 per cent stake in its business, subject to regulatory approval, and its rebranding as Etihad Regional.

“We are strong believers in fair competition and we cannot accept to be driven out of the market through predatory measures which are clearly adopted as an attempt to weaken and damage our company rather than to fulfill the commercial logic of our competitor. We believe that these actions deserve to be examined in more detail by the Swiss Competition Authority.”

Maurizio Merlo
Chief Executive Officer, Darwin Airline

According to Darwin, Swiss responded to the agreement by engaging in a series of “abusive actions aimed at forcing Darwin out of the Swiss market”. These, according to the Swiss regional carrier, included terminating, with no valid reason, the wet lease by Swiss of Darwin aircraft, which it had operated on behalf of the Swiss flag carrier on the Zurich-Lugano route for a period of almost 10 years.

Darwin also notes that Swiss replaced the wet leased aircraft with larger aircraft from Tyrolean Airways, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Austrian Airlines using non-Swiss aircraft on Swiss domestic routes. It also said Swiss terminated a standard interline agreement with the carrier which has increased the burden on Darwin passengers who are connecting to or from Swiss flights.

The regional carrier also said its complaint that Swiss cancelled an agreement to accommodate Darwin passengers in the event of flight disruptions, while targeting its network it launched new routes in direct competition with Darwin on routes it had never previously served.

Despite its well-known shareholder, Darwin is a small player in the European market serving just 28 destinations in Europe with a fleet of 12 aircraft – eight 50-seat Saab 2000s and four 68-seat ATR72s. Last year, the airline carried just under half a million passengers on a total of 16,426 flights.

According to Maurizio Merlo, chief executive officer of Darwin Airline, Swiss has been going to extraordinary lengths to put pressure on Darwin on routes where it is known that current seat capacity cannot be filled.

“We are strong believers in fair competition and we cannot accept to be driven out of the market through predatory measures which are clearly adopted as an attempt to weaken and damage our company rather than to fulfill the commercial logic of our competitor. We believe that these actions deserve to be examined in more detail by the Swiss Competition Authority,” he said.