In the first semester, SWISS transported nearly 7.5 million passengers and made a extremely solid financial result “.
SWISS recorded a strong growth in the number of passengers in the first half of 2023. Its planes carried nearly 7.5 million passengers, a figure up 41% compared to the previous year. Over the same period, it carried out more than 61,000 flights, or around 30% more in annual comparison. Across its entire network, SWISS capacity (expressed in available seat kilometers – ASK) increased by 36% in the first half of 2023.
Traffic (expressed in passenger-kilometres transported – PKT) increased by nearly 54% over the same period. The average seat load factor was 83.3% (+9.6 percentage points compared to the previous year). SWISS continues to expect full-year 2023 capacity (ASK) of around 85% compared to 2019 and a further increase in 2024. Compared to 2019, capacity was 85% in first half and around 87% in the second quarter.
The Swiss airline, a subsidiary of the German group Lufthansa, has thus achieved a “ extremely solid financial result “, can we read in its balance sheet. During the first six months of the year, it registered a operating profit of 338.3 million Swiss francs (compared to 67 million Swiss francs in the first half of 2022), approximately 270 million Swiss francs more than the previous year. Over the same period, operating income increased by 37.8% year-on-year to reach 2.5 billion Swiss francs (compared to 1.8 billion Swiss francs in the first half of 2022).
“After the extremely difficult years of the coronavirus pandemic, the stars are currently more favorable to us than ever. Like the entire industry, we have benefited from demand for air travel still significantly exceeding supply,” said Markus Binkert, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of SWISS. In addition, the Swiss airline was able to take advantage of the restructuring put in place in 2021 which allowed it to mitigate the rising operating costs (energy prices and generalized inflation) that it faces today. the entire aviation sector.
