SWISS, (Swiss International Air Lines) carried 7,367,099 passengers in the first six months of 2011, a substantial 10.9-per-cent increase on the same period last year.
The positive business trend is attributable partly to the numerous flight cancellations in the prior-year period owing to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud but Swiss has also posted year-on-year increases in all its monthly passenger numbers to date in 2011.
While the 79.1 per cent seat load factor on the airline’s European network for the first-half period marked a 1.1-percentage-point improvement on January-to-June 2010, the 83.7-per-cent seat load factor recorded for intercontinental services was a slight 1.3-percentage-point decline. Systemwide seat load factor remained broadly stable, slipping 0.5 percentage points to 79.6 per cent. Swiss operated 74,613 flights in the first half of 2011, 8.4 per cent up on the same period last year.
Passenger volumes (in revenue passenger-kilometres) were up 10.5 per cent on intercontinental services and as much as 13.1 per cent the European network. Total capacity (in available seat-kilometres) was increased, by 11.4 per cent in Europe and 12.3 per cent on intercontinental routes.
The airfreight business of Swiss WorldCargo suffered a 2.5-percentage-point decline in its cargo load factor (by volume) for the period, from the 81.8 per cent of January-to-June 2010, to 79.3 per cent.