The airline Swiss was able to fly a profit of 2022 million francs in the first half of 67. You have left the loss zone. Strong demand in the second quarter of 2022 contributed the lion's share.

In the first half of the current year, Swiss had around 5,3 million passengers on board. This means that around five times more travelers used the services of the Lufthansa subsidiary than in the same period last year. Sales rose to 1,8 billion Swiss francs. The airline expects full-year 2022 earnings to be positive.

At CHF 67,0 million, the operating result was around CHF 465 million higher than in the previous year (1st half of 2021: CHF – 398,2 million). Operating income increased by 179,7 percent to CHF 1,8 billion (H1 2021: CHF 659,3 million). Capacity for the first half of the year was 62 percent compared to the same period in 2019, and in 2021 the figure was 26 percent. “We are very pleased that after only the first six months of this year and despite the continued reduction in capacity, we have managed to get out of the red again. Our liquidity situation has developed very positively in recent months due to the great need to catch up on air travel, higher ticket prices and improved cost structures. This also enabled us to repay the bank loan guaranteed by the federal government in the second quarter before the end of the term," says CFO Markus Binkert.

Positive trend intensifies in the second quarter

The positive business trend of the first few months of this year has clearly intensified in the second quarter. A strong increase in demand has led to a significant increase in operating income. At CHF 1,1 billion, they have more than tripled compared to the previous year (Q2 2021: CHF 359,7 million). In combination with positive effects from the restructuring, the operating result for the second quarter was CHF 114,4 million, almost CHF 312 million higher than the previous year (Q2 2021: CHF -197,2 million).

Strong growth in passenger numbers

Passenger numbers experienced strong growth in the first half of 2022. From January to June, Swiss transported a total of around 5,3 million passengers, more than five times as many as in the same period last year. During this period, the Lufthansa subsidiary operated more than 47.000 flights, around 3,5 times more than in the previous year. In the first half of 2022, the airline offered a total of 137,1 percent more seat kilometers (ASK) across the entire route network, while the number of revenue seat kilometers (RPK) rose by 422,1 percent in the same period. The average seat load factor was 73,6 percent and was thus 40,2 percentage points above the previous year's value.

Swiss on course for full-year profitability

After the high demand in the second quarter, the booking situation for the rest of the summer also looks good. Nevertheless, very high kerosene prices are to be expected and an economic slowdown is to be expected. In addition, the resource bottlenecks continue to pose major challenges for aviation, including the airlines. However, their solid structure and cost basis allow the carrier to look positively to the second half of the year.

Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Swiss: "Thanks to last year's restructuring, Swiss is in a solid financial position and with the positive half-year result we have proven that we have kept our word to our stakeholders. This stability now allows us to invest again in our product, in improving customer service and in our own staff, and therefore to dismantle the agreed crisis measures in Switzerland earlier than planned".