SWISS maintained its systemwide seat load factor at a high 76.8% for the first quarter of 2008 (compared to 76.9% for the same period last year). SWISS's seat load factor thus remains above the average among Europe's air carriers. The encouraging seat load factor result was also achieved while raising capacity: the 8 223 million available seat-kilometres offered for the period were an 11.3% increase on the 7 387 million of January-to-March 2007. SWISS carried some three million passengers in the first three months of 2008, an 11.8% increase on the 2.6 million of the prior-year period.  
 
First-quarter seat load factor for SWISS's European network was increased 1.3 percentage points, from the 66.3% of the prior-year period to 67.6%. Seat load factor for intercontinental services amounted to 81.0%, a decline of 0.9 percentage points on the 81.9% of January-to-March 2007.
 
SWISS recorded a systemwide seat load factor of 81.1% for March 2008, an increase of 0.8 percentage points on the 80.3% of the prior-year month. European seat load factor for March was raised 2.7 percentage points from 70.7% to 73.4%, while seat load factor for intercontinental services amounted to 84.7% (compared to 84.9% for March 2007). SWISS carried 1 119 287 passengers on its scheduled services in March, an 11.9% increase on the 1 000 065 passengers of the prior-year month. The airline operated 10 913 flights in the month, 2.4% more than the 10 657 flights it had operated in March 2007.