updated
airlineSwiss makes a profit of 456 million francs
Swiss flew back to profitability in 2022 and made a profit of CHF 456 million. Parent company Lufthansa is also reporting good figures.
That’s what it’s about
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Despite a turbulent 2022, Swiss made a profit again.
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The airline recorded a profit of CHF 456 million.
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Parent company Lufthansa is also recording billions in profits again.
Despite many challenges, Swiss is again making a profit in 2022 and has posted an extraordinarily good result of CHF 456 million (2021: CHF -405 million). The basis for the successful course of business would be optimized cost structures, stable flight operations and favorable market conditions. At CHF 4.41 billion, operating income was around twice as high as in the previous year. In addition, the company has created a good starting position to continue investing in its employees and the customer experience and to drive forward efforts in the area of sustainability, according to the statement.
Profit despite major uncertainties
The first quarter was still characterized by great uncertainty due to the prevailing omicron virus variant and the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the spring, however, people’s confidence in travel quickly returned and the demand curve for air travel showed a clear upward trend, according to the statement. The rapid increase in flight operations led to major structural challenges throughout aviation. The great pent-up demand for air travel exceeded the available capacity, which had a significant impact on Swiss’ financial results in 2022.
As early as the end of May, Swiss was able to repay the bank loan, 85 percent of which was guaranteed by the federal government, including interest, totaling CHF 60 million early due to the positive development of the liquidity situation and financed itself via the capital market. Since then, Swiss’ liquidity situation has continued to improve.
85 percent of pre-corona capacity
In the current year, Swiss is planning 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 should be positioned at the Zurich and Geneva locations again in the summer of 2023. At the same time, the airline secured the growth in capacity at an early stage with its wet lease partners Helvetic Airways and Air Baltic. In the human resources area, the process for a new collective labor agreement is still in progress on the part of Kabine, since the first joint proposal from Kapers and Swiss was recently rejected by the members of the social partner. With regard to cockpit and ground staff, Swiss and the social partners agreed on new conditions as early as 2022.
Parent company Lufthansa records billions in profits
After two years of losses in the Corona crisis, Lufthansa again made billions in day-to-day business in 2022. Thanks to the recovery in ticket demand and record results in freight and maintenance, the operating profit adjusted for special items (adjusted EBIT) reached a good 1.5 billion euros, as the MDax-listed group announced on Friday in Frankfurt.
Lufthansa thus met its forecast, which had been raised three times over the course of the year, and fulfilled the expectations of analysts. In the current year, CEO Carsten Spohr wants to increase adjusted operating profit “significantly”. Analysts recently assumed around 1.65 billion euros.
In the past year, the airlines of the group transported a total of around 102 million passengers, more than twice as many as in the second Corona year 2021. Nevertheless, the passenger airlines remained operationally in the red at 300 million euros, as profits in the second half of the year were unable to make up for the losses from the first half of the year, which was shaped by the pandemic. Sales jumped group-wide by 95 percent to almost 32.8 billion euros. The bottom line was a surplus of 791 million euros after a loss of almost 2.2 billion in the previous year.
(fur)