Swiss International Air Lines (Group) reports an operating profit of CHF 63 million for the first quarter of 2009, compared to CHF 66 million for the same period last year. Total income from operating activities for the period declined 7.4% to CHF 1 081 million.
 
In what proved a challenging first-quarter period in business terms, SWISS saw its total income from operating activities fall 7.4%, from the CHF 1 168 million of January-to-March 2008 to CHF 1 081 million. With demand declining, pressure on yields remained high. Revenues fell particularly steeply in the business travel segment - a trend that is also attributable to the current difficulties in the Swiss financial world. The airfreight business of Swiss WorldCargo sustained a particularly substantial decline. Lower crude oil prices and favourable currency movements brought some relief in cost terms; but these were unable to offset the revenue declines and, as a result, operating profit for the period was 4.5% down on its prior-year level.
 
"We are feeling the economic slowdown in our results more and more each month," says SWISS CEO Christoph Franz. "Our first-quarter result is still within our expectations, though, and underlines our firm intention to remain profitable even in tough business times. The fact that we have done so is due in no small part to the sizeable flexibility we have shown towards market developments."
 
SWISS responded swiftly and specifically to declines in demand by making various modifications to its network and schedules in the first-quarter period. Frequencies were reduced and smaller aircraft deployed on a number of routes. As a result, actual capacity for January to March was around 4% less than scheduled. At the same time, destinations such as Lyon and Oslo are being added to the SWISS network. "In difficult economic times, we must continue to expand our catchment area, to enable us to maintain our intercontinental network," explains CEO-designate Harry Hohmeister. "And it's also vitally important that we continue to keep our costs firmly under control."
 
SWISS is also keeping to its long-term investment programme, to further strengthen its market position. As planned, the new Airbus A330-300 which recently entered service will be joined by three further examples of the type by the end of the year. An additional Airbus A320 will also enter revenue service in mid-May. And SWISS has further resolved to replace its present Avro RJ100 fleet with the state-of-the-art Bombardier CSeries from 2014 onwards.
 
Traffic figures
A total of 2.95 million customers travelled on SWISS in the first three months of 2009, 1.6% fewer than the 3.0 million of the prior-year period. The impact of the global financial crisis was felt increasingly on intercontinental services, where seat load factor declined 4.3 percentage points to a (still high) 76.7%. Seat load factor on European services slipped 1.8 percentage points. SWISS adjusted capacity early during the first quarter in anticipation of weakening demand. As a result, the total number of flights operated in the first three months of 2009 - 32 351 - was only slightly above the 31 943 of the prior-year period.