SWISS posts slightly higher seat load factor for the first three months

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) transported 3,610,298 passengers in the first three months of 2013, compared to 3,611,817 passengers in the prior-year period. The airline operated 35,722 flights in the period, 4.5% fewer than the 37,391 flights of January-to-March 2012. Of these, 31,550 flights were within Europe (down 5.0%) and 4,172 flights (down 0.4%) were to or from intercontinental destinations. Systemwide seat load factor for the first quarter amounted to 79.6%, a 1.8-percentage-point improvement on the 77.8% of the prior-year period.

SWISS offered 2.1% more capacity in available seat-kilometre (ASK) terms in the first three months of 2013 than it had in the prior-year period. Total traffic volume increased 4.5% in revenue passenger-kilometre (RPK) terms. On the European network, ASK capacity was up 4.3% while RPK volume declined 1.1%; and on intercontinental routes ASK was raised 5.5% and RPK increased by 6.9%.

The first-quarter airfreight business of Swiss WorldCargo was broadly in line with prior-year levels. Cargo load factor (by volume) stood at 80.7%, a slight 0.2-percentage-point increase on the 80.5% of the prior-year period, while revenue tonne-kilometre sales were up 4.0%.

A total of 1,362,860 passengers flew SWISS in March 2013, a 1.9% increase on the 1,337,878 of the same period last year. Systemwide seat load factor for the month amounted to 84.0%, a 2.4-percentage-point improvement on the 81.6% of March 2012. Seat load factor on European services was up 3.9 percentage points, while seat load factor on the intercontinental network rose 1.2 percentage points. Swiss WorldCargo posted a cargo load factor (by volume) of 82.6%, a 2.7-percentage-point decline from the 85.3% of March 2012.