- Swiss recovered from its nosedive in the pandemic in 2022 and ended up in the black.
- The airline achieved an operating profit of CHF 456 million after an operating loss of CHF 405 million in the previous year.
- However, the Swiss is not yet at the flight level of the pre-corona year 2019.
Sales more than doubled to CHF 4.41 billion, as Swiss writes in a press release. This after he had collapsed in the previous two years. In 2021, Swiss had a turnover of 2.1 billion francs. In the first year of the pandemic, 2020, it was only 1.85 billion.
However, despite the climb, Swiss is still not at the flight level of the pre-corona period: in 2019 the Lufthansa subsidiary had a turnover of 5.33 billion and an operating profit of 578 million francs.
The post-pandemic demand boom gave Swiss a boost. In addition to the recovery in passenger bookings, cost optimization and stable flight operations in the summer drove earnings up. The adjusted operating profit margin reached double digits again at 10.4 percent.
CFO Markus Binkert was quoted as saying in the statement that the result for 2022 was clearly better than expected.
Twice as many passengers
The first quarter was still characterized by great uncertainty due to the Omicron variant of the corona virus and the start of the Russian war against Ukraine: “In the spring, however, people’s confidence in travel quickly returned and the demand curve for air travel was clearly upwards,” writes the Swiss.
In the year as a whole, 12.8 million passengers were transported. That is more than twice as many as in 2021 (almost 6 million). The number of flights grew by 89 percent to around 107,000. On average, 80.9 out of 100 seats in the aircraft were occupied. That is 26.5 more than in the previous year. The load factor on the intercontinental routes was slightly higher than on the European routes.
Loans repaid early
“Despite major challenges in aviation as a whole, we managed to turn around in 2022 and, with operational stability of over 99 percent, flew well into the profit zone again in the summer,” writes Swiss boss Dieter Vranckx.
As early as the end of May, Swiss was able to repay the bank loan, including interest, which was 85 percent guaranteed by the federal government, totaling CHF 60 million, early on due to the positive development in liquidity and financed itself via the capital market. Since then, Swiss’ liquidity situation has continued to improve.
Entire fleet back in action
According to its own information, Swiss is planning 2023 with a conservative capacity of around 85 percent compared to the pre-Corona year 2019: “The goal is still to ensure the greatest possible stability in flight operations.” For this purpose, the entire Swiss fleet will be positioned in Zurich and Geneva again in the summer, according to the statement.
Legend:
Aircraft maintenance center at Zurich Airport in Kloten.
KEYSTONE/Christian Beutler
At the same time, Swiss has secured capacities with its partners Helvetic Airways and Air Baltic, of which entire planes with crews are in use for Swiss.
«With the successful course of business, we have created a good starting position for 2023. We have the necessary financial resources to remain an attractive employer for our employees and to raise the customer experience to a new level,” Vranckx continued.