For most airlines, 2009 was a nightmare. Already reeling from the previous year’s oil price spike, carriers across the globe were forced to cut capacity and slash prices as passenger numbers plummeted, particularly in the crucial premium sector. Then, in the final quarter, just as the market was starting to show signs of recovery, the hardest winter for decades hit the northern hemisphere and grounded hundreds of flights at airports across Europe and the US.

Yet for one tiny regional player it was a year to remember for all the right reasons. While other European carriers recorded double-digit drops in passenger traffic and billion-euro losses, Geneva-based Baboo filled 409,000 seats, a 38% increase on the previous year, and upped its turnover by 30% to CHF73m (€50m). It also added new routes to Milan, Marseille and London, bringing the total number of destinations served to 19, and became the first airline to operate international scheduled flights out of the UK’s Oxford Airport. Even December’s blizzards couldn’t dampen the high spirits at Baboo. “Everyone suffers from disruptions and this winter has been particularly punishing,” says chief executive Jacques Bankir. “But we have not been more affected than others and we were even in the news as the only airline not cancelling flights between Geneva and Britain, some days. I guess we were lucky.”

But Baboo’s recent success has had more to do with good management than good fortune – that, and its unique history. The airline was created in 2003 by 29-year-old Anglo-Swiss financier Julian Cook to serve the Geneva-Lugano route, after it was dropped by ailing national carrier Swiss International Air Lines. Other high-end leisure destinations soon followed – Venice, St Tropez, Valencia, Florence – and in 2006 Baboo attracted investment from the travel arm of Lebanese telecoms group M1, enabling it to expand its fleet with a pair of ultra-modern Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop planes. By early 2008, however, the airline was on the verge of bankruptcy. M1 Travel stepped in to take control and import new management, and Cook moved into microcredit financing before becoming a local TV star advising would-be entrepreneurs. He left an invaluable legacy, though, in the boundless goodwill Baboo had won during his tenure from Geneva’s business set for its combination of personal service and eccentric charm.

Apart from naming his nascent airline after his Indian grandfather, Cook’s other quirks included installing guestbooks on all his planes for passengers to record their experiences and, more importantly, hiring enthusiastic young staff and insisting that only the very best fresh food was served on every flight. Locals also have fond memories of Tofu, Cook’s black labrador, who featured in all the airline’s early advertising and was even credited as editor of the in-flight magazine.

Today, Tofu has been banished in favour of slick ads from Saatchi & Saatchi and the fleet – including three brand new 100-seater Embraer jets – has been given a professional makeover by Interbrand. But while Baboo has left behind its amateur beginnings, its new owners have been careful to keep its culture and character intact. The guestbooks have remained on board, the staff are as friendly as ever, and passengers are still offered trays of fresh muffins and fine soups from one of Geneva’s leading private jet caterers.

Behind the scenes, though, Bankir has been busy. An industry veteran who built his career at Air France before heading up a series of regional carriers including CityJet, he was tempted out of retirement at the age of 70 to take the helm at Baboo in March 2008. Since then, he has brought the airline into the aviation mainstream, introducing flexible ticketing, dynamic pricing models and the Sabre distribution system. He has also leveraged his contacts and experience to forge a series of vital partnerships. Baboo now has codeshare arrangements on 98% of its flights with carriers including Air France, Alitalia and Tarom – all added in 2009 – and last November became a member of Flying Blue, the loyalty programme of the Air France-KLM group. Bankir says that such agreements are both a vote of confidence in Baboo’s strategy and the key to its survival. “Alliances are fundamental for a small isolated airline flying in a very competitive environment. To sign partnerships, such an airline must show a strong operational quality and that it can bring significantly strategic routes into the alliance.”

Refining the route network has indeed been one of the biggest challenges of Bankir’s time at Baboo. Forays into Russia and Ukraine – inspired by the extended range of the new Embraers – proved ill-fated, but the airline’s recent arrival in the UK has been warmly welcomed by financial commuters and high-end fliers. “You do have to be very careful with the routes you choose,” says Bankir. “You have to find routes where you can be number one or number two.”

So can 2010 be another year of breakneck expansion for Baboo? While he doesn’t rule out the possibility of adding new destinations, Bankir is looking forward to a period of calm consolidation. More technological innovations are on the horizon, including online check-in, but, for Baboo’s Genevan fan base, retaining the personal touch remains all-important. “All IT novelties are important these days,” says Bankir. “But our check-in facilities are rarely congested and our clients enjoy speaking to a human being where it is still possible.” Indeed, despite the hefty investment of the past two years and the addition of his own managerial expertise, Bankir insists that much of Baboo’s recent success is down to the dedication of its 200-strong staff. “The main difference between a legacy airline and a regional airline is that everyone and everything you do counts,” he says. “There’s not much room for mistakes, so the team is everything.”

He is quietly optimistic about Baboo’s future. With Europe rapidly emerging from recession and Switzerland attracting a new wave of financial firms away from less tax-friendly regimes, the timing looks perfect for the revitalised airline – and it has also passed a watershed of its own. “Baboo has been around for six years,” says Bankir. “They say in the industry that if you can make it past five years you’ve succeeded.” To have done so in the worst downturn in global aviation for a generation is quite an achievement.