SWISS achieves high seat load factor in UAE

The route remained profitable, achieving an average seat load factor of 86 percent throughout the year.

For the first two weeks of January, SWISS has achieved a seat load factor of 96 percent. Commenting on the recently released figures, Felix Rodel, Area Manager, Middle East, Pakistan & Iran, said: "Our Zurich - Dubai service has proved popular with travellers, both business and leisure. Our early arrival times and strong onward connections provide for some of the earliest times in to Europe."

"SWISS remains committed to the region," continued Rodel. "We have restructured our operations to allow for services that provide a premium level of comfort without compromise. With the addition of our extra service to Jeddah, via Riyadh, we have been able to increase seat load factors from our operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the last two months of 2003, seat loads on the Riyadh and Jeddah services rose to 53 and 51 percent, respectively."

SWISS transported a total of 10.66 million passengers worldwide on its scheduled services in the 2003 business year, posting a system wide seat load factor of 72.4 per cent. Seat load factor for intercontinental services stood at 78.0 per cent, while seat load factor for the European network amounted to 59.6 per cent. Traffic trends were especially encouraging in the fourth quarter: seat load factor stood at 75 per cent, a 4.2-percentage-point gain on its prior-year equivalent.

The network modifications introduced with the 2003/04 winter schedules and the new "Swiss in Europe" business concept both had a positive impact on traffic levels in the fourth quarter of 2003. The period saw some 2.4 million passengers carried on SWISS scheduled flights, raising seat load factor to 75 per cent, a 4.2 percentage-point improvement on the prior-year result.

In addition, the airline picked up a number of accolades, such Germany's Business Traveller magazine's Best Airline to North & South America, which the airline received for the second consecutive year. The Swiss-based carrier also won first place in the awards' "Ground Personnel" category for the Germany & Europe region.

SWISS flies to 72 destinations in 44 countries under the schedule. In the Middle East, SWISS operates a total of 25 weekly flights including daily non-stop flights from Dubai, five weekly flights from Cairo, four times from Karachi, three times from Jeddah, Riyadh and Muscat.