In the first nine months of the current year SWISS carried 11,564,481 passengers, an increase of 9.5 per over the same period one year ago (2010: 10,562,126). While the number of flights operated rose by 6.8 per cent to 112,915 (2010: 105,757), load factor declined slightly on a year-ago comparison to 82.1 per cent (2010: 82.3%). 
In Europe SWISS increased its available seat kilometres (ASK) by 10.1 per cent, against a 12 per cent increase in the number of revenue seat kilometres (RPK). SWISS recorded a seat load factor (SLF) of 74.9 per cent, a gain of 1.2 percentage points (2010: 73.7%).
Available seat kilometres on intercontinental routes were increased in the first three quarters by 8.8 per cent while the number of revenue seat kilometres was increased by 7.7 per cent. Seat load factor for this period fell by 0.9 percentage points to 85.9 per cent (2010: 86.8%).
Swiss WorldCargo's air freight business recorded growth of 4.9 per cent (in terms of freight tonne kilometres) in the first nine months of the year. However, the volume-based load factor experienced a slight decline, slipping to 78.2 per cent. This translates to a drop of 2.2 percentage points on a year-ago comparison (2010: 80.4%).

SWISS with third-best single-month result in September
In September SWISS carried 1,337,619 passengers, an increase of 5.2 per cent over the same month a year ago (2010: 1,272,060). This figure represents the third-best single-month result in the history of the airline. The load factor declined to 85.1 per cent (2010: 85.2%). Compared to 2010, seat load factor on intercontinental routes rose by 0.3 percentage points to 88.6 per cent (2010: 88.3%). In Europe, on the other hand, a slight decline of 0.4 percentage points (2010: 79.0%) was recorded. Swiss WorldCargo recorded a volume-based load factor of 77.2 per cent, which is 0.6 percentage points below the level for the same month one year ago (2010: 77.8%).