Claims against the collapsed SAirGroup are not likely to be settled until 2004, the company�s administrator told a creditors meeting on Wednesday.

Creditors, including former Swissair employees, banks, suppliers and foreign partners, were demanding SFr72 billion from the three companies built around Swissair � SAirGroup, SAirLines, and Flightlease. SAirGroup alone is facing claims of around SFr38 billion.

Although the meeting had been expected to be stormy, creditors present reacted calmly to the announcement by the court-appointed administrator, Karl W�thrich, that in all probability no payments would be made before 2004.

W�thrich added that the process of working through claims could drag on for between five and ten years.

He also said that documents relating to the aviation group obtained from the accountancy firms PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG were incomplete.

Creditors voted by an overwhelming 97 per cent majority to elect W�thrich as the official SAirGroup liquidator and elected the seven members for the creditor's committe.

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