SWISS celebrates second anniversary with strong outlook for 2004

The company will soon be taking part in the 11th annual Arabian Travel Market, taking place between May 4-7.

Speaking at the celebrations, Felix Rodel, Area Manager for the Middle East, Pakistan and Iran echoed the words of SWISS Board Chairman, Peter Bouw by saying: "An airline should be safe, reliable and comfortable. That's the kind of product all carriers, SWISS included wish to offer. Meeting the challenge of our customer's service expectation is an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. The Chairman was saying that our people make the SWISS brand, and as a result, we have had a fantastic year, our seat load factors were strong, and this trend has been maintained in the first quarter of 2004."

The celebrations come after the company's recent annual results press conference, where SWISS announced a stronger financial position going in to 2004. With liquid assets amounting to CHF 503 million, the company announced an operating loss of CHF 498 million, compared with CHF 909 million loss in 2002.

Rodel continued, "The global airline industry has been through a second year of recovery, however, the outlook at SWISS is very positive. We have completed 60 percent of our restructuring plan and expect to witness the positive impact of these measures in 2005.

SWISS has recently launched its summer timetable, which sees the airline continue its services to the Middle East with 25 weekly flights. SWISS' global network of 72 destinations has been reduced to 70 with Buenos Aires and Manila being removed from the schedule.

Towards the end of the year, passengers can look forward to the introduction of SWISS' newly refurbished Airbus A330 fleet, which operates on the Middle East routes. The refit of the aircraft will provide a greater level of comfort for passengers in all three classes.

SWISS flies to 70 destinations in 42 countries under the current 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.