The airline Swiss repaid the bank loan guaranteed by the Confederation at the end of May and before its maturity. The national carrier said on Thursday that it was now able to finance itself on the capital market via its parent company Lufthansa.
The amount of this loan, 85% guaranteed by the Confederation and due to mature in 2025, amounted to a maximum of 1.5 billion francs. Confirming previous statements, Swiss pointed out that it had not used more than half of this bridge loan, granted in 2020 to the company and its subsidiary Edelweiss to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Swiss also paid 60 million francs in interest and fees on this loan, it said in a press release. She had also obtained a loan of 500 million francs from Lufthansa.
‘In view of the stabilization of the situation on the pandemic front and the positive development of liquidity following the easing of the imposed travel restrictions, Swiss is now able to finance itself on the capital market through the intermediary of the Lufthansa group’, its owner, the airline added.
Badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, like the entire air transport sector, Swiss launched a major restructuring last year with a reduction of around 15% of its fleet and the elimination of some 1,700 full-time jobs at the end of 2021.
“After cumulative losses of more than a billion francs over the past two years, we have regained financial stability and generated positive cash flow in the first quarter of this year,” added chief financial officer Markus Binkert.
The Confederation welcomed this early repayment and will be able to liquidate the bond without loss, said the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) in a press release. The State also received approximately 50 million francs in compensation in the form of taxes and interest income.
/ATS