Swissair faces a sudden death unless the Swiss government manages to secure a last-minute financial rescue plan that involves some of the biggest names in Swiss business.
After a weekend of frantic behind-the-scenes talks, the cabinet is set to decide today whether the Swiss private sector has offered up enough funding to warrant a big infusion of taxpayers' money into the ailing aviation firm.
Without new cash, tens of thousands of job cuts loom Swissair, which employs 70,000 people.
The court-appointed administrator of Swissair Group and several of its subsidiaries said on Friday that if there was not enough financing for the rescue plan today, the companies were likely to go bankrupt.
Swiss newspapers said today there was still not enough money on the table, with estimates of the shortfall ranging from 200 million to 1.0 billion Swiss francs.
The possible death of Swissair would start a new phase in the consolidation of the European airline industry. The failure of Belgian's Sabena, in which Swissair has a 49 per cent stake, could follow.
The Belgian airline is under temporary creditor protection and has been granted state aid.
Analysts expect only a few airlines to survive in the long term. Among them are British Airways and Dutch KLM, which were reported to be in renewed alliance talks.