SWISS, the new Swiss airline, is going along well with the trend: passenger figures show that, during the first six months, there was a continuing month-by-month increase. In total, 5,169,617 passengers were welcomed aboard in the first six months, of whom 733,501 were carried on intercontinental flights in the second quarter.

In European business, the seat-lad factor increased month by month and attained a figure of 62.0% in June. Very good results were achieved in the first two quarters for traffic with Spain and Portugal, and also with destinations in south-east Europe, such as Greece, Hungary, Macedonia and Turkey. Traffic with Ireland was also good, whereas the development of traffic with Germany was below average.

With the start of the Summer timetable, SWISS expanded its route network to cover destinations in North and South America, in the Near and Middle East, in Asia and in Africa. The start in intercontinental business was very satisfactorily performed. Following load factors of about 75% in April and May. The seat-load factor increased to 80.6% in June. The links between Switzerland and North America to New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, and Montreal contributed largely to the good results. In the same period, above average load factors were achieved on the routes to Bangkok and Hongkong.

Overall, a seat-load factor of 66.1% was recorded for the traditionally weak seasonal months of the first half-year. Whereas for European business the load factor was 55%, for intercontinental traffic it was 76.9%. Both the passenger numbers and the seat-load factors were well above the values contained in the Business Plan of December 2001.

The complete traffic statistics may be called on www.swiss.com.

Additional information regarding SWISS business progress in the first half-year will be given when the half-year results are published on September 16.

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