SWISS International Air Lines (SWISS) has posted an operating result (Adjusted EBIT) of CHF 30.7 million for the first quarter of 2024, a period that is typically challenging for the air transport industry. This figure represents a decrease of CHF 48 million compared to the same quarter in 2023. The decline has been attributed to factors such as lower yields, a weaker cargo business, and rising costs, particularly in personnel expenses.
Despite these challenges, SWISS remains committed to providing reliable and punctual air services during the upcoming busy summer season. The airline has initiated a comprehensive internal program and is enhancing cooperation with all relevant partners to achieve this goal.
Total revenues for the first quarter of 2024 reached CHF 1.2 billion, marking an increase of 8.1% from the previous year. “As anticipated, the exceptional market conditions that our industry experienced immediately after the pandemic have continued to fade,” explained SWISS Chief Financial Officer Markus Binkert. “Demand for travel remains high, but many airlines have further increased their capacities. This has a tendency to bring yields down from their prior-year levels – at our company, too. We have also seen a significant weakening in our air cargo business, which benefited from particularly strong tailwinds during COVID times.”
The rising costs including inflation, higher fuel prices, and increased personnel expenses due to new collective labor agreements for cockpit and cabin staff impacted SWISS’s earnings in the first quarter. “Given that the first quarter of the year tends to be one of the weaker ones for seasonal reasons, we are satisfied with this earnings result,” continued CFO Binkert. “Our business has returned to normality at a high level. For our full-year results, though, the next two seasonally strong quarters will be key.”
SWISS is preparing for the busy summer months after a successful Easter period. The airline is prioritizing customer satisfaction and aiming to be Europe’s most stable airline during the summer. CEO Dieter Vranckx stated, “We want to offer our customers the reliability that they should be able to expect from us. For a premium airline like ours, though, stability alone is not enough. So, this year we aim to substantially improve our flights’ punctuality as well, in collaboration with our partners. To this end, we have launched a companywide program that focuses on the satisfaction of our customers. We’re already working intensively on this and developing a wide range of actions to help us achieve these objectives.”
In the first three months of 2024, SWISS transported approximately 3.7 million passengers, marking an increase of nearly 17% over the same period last year. The airline operated about 31,000 flights, up 14.5% from the first quarter of 2023. Available-seat-kilometer production rose by 11.6%, and traffic volume, measured in revenue passenger-kilometers, increased by 11.3%. The systemwide seat load factor for the quarter was 80.7%, a slight decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous year.
