Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) generated total operating income of CHF 1,191 million in the first three months of 2013, a 2% increase on the CHF 1,167 million of the same period last year. With market conditions remaining difficult, however, the company reported a substantially lower operating result for the period: a loss of CHF 24 million (which compares to a CHF 4 million operating loss for January-to-March 2012.

SWISS increased its quarterly operating income 2% in the first three months of 2013, from the CHF 1,167 million of the prior-year period to CHF 1,191 million. But with the combination of negative exogenous factors and a still-unfavourable market situation, the company sustained a CHF 24 million operating loss for the first-quarter period ' a substantial deterioration on the CHF 4 million operating loss of January-to-March 2012.

The markets continued to show no signs of recovery, while SWISS's fuel expenses suffered a disproportionately high increase year-on-year. 'Thanks to our rigorous cost discipline and the countermeasures we have taken, the rest of our cost items remained broadly stable or were even improved,' comments CEO Harry Hohmeister, 'even though we increased our production in the period concerned. But we must now take our efforts even further if we are to restore our earnings to the levels we need to ensure SWISS's continued sustainable development.' 



Continuing earnings-enhancement actions 
SWISS continues to make further cost optimizations and seek potential new revenue sources as part of the Lufthansa Group's broader SCORE Change for Success programme to secure the group's long-term business future. 



These endeavours include redeveloping its organization and flight operations at Geneva Airport over the next few months to provide greater flexibility and align this business more closely to local and regional needs. Recruitment for the new Geneva crew base is already under way, and 150 cabin crew members and 90 pilots should be stationed here in the medium term. The first actions on the Geneva sales and marketing side have been scheduled for the second-quarter period.

With kerosene accounting for one of its biggest cost positions, SWISS is also steadily working to optimize its fuel management. The fuel surcharge on intercontinental tickets was also slightly increased at the beginning of the year in response to fuel price trends.

Recent moves to expand the SWISS service range have extended to further new online booking options at swiss.com. These include a seat selection facility and the possibility of provisionally reserving a seat at a guaranteed fare for up to 72 hours. 



As part of a broader concerted drive to make greater use of synergies within the Lufthansa Group, certain SWISS financial accounting activities were transferred to a shared service centre at the beginning of 2013. A few positions were also eliminated following simplifications of the processes involved. A total of 19 positions in Basel were affected by these actions.

New appointees to the Management Board
Two new members of the Management Board were appointed in mid-April. Markus Binkert (41), previously Head of Sales & Marketing for Switzerland, Germany and Austria, was named as SWISS's new Chief Commercial Officer. He succeeds Holger H'tty. And Roland Busch (49), currently Head of Finance & Information Management at Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, was designated to succeed Chief Financial Officer Marcel Klaus, who will be leaving SWISS at the end of July.

The two appointees return the SWISS Management Board to full numbers. The four-member Management Board further consists of CEO Harry Hohmeister and Chief Operating Officer Rainer Hiltebrand.


Still-strong demand and high passenger volumes
A total of 3.61 million travellers flew SWISS in the first three months of 2013, a volume that was virtually unchanged from prior-year levels. The 35,722 fligh