Face-to-Face: Markus Schmid, Area Manager Asia Pacific, Swiss International Air Lines Ltd.
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1) Swiss International Air Lines recently introduced its new Airbus A330-300 to Dubai; can you tell us a little about the new aircraft’s facilities, and when we are likely to see them further rolled-out on Asian routes?
Our new long-haul Airbus A330-300 sets new standards of in-flight comfort. Substantially more legroom in Economy, an air-cushioned seat that can be turned into a two-metre flat bed in Business and a “suite above the clouds” in First are the key features of the new cabin product. It also features a state-of-the-art entertainment system with a vast range of the latest movies in all three classes, along with over 40 TV channels and more than 300 music CDs. The new Business and First product with air-cushioned seats, a technology developed in Switzerland, is a world first.
Our new Airbus A330-300 fleet will be operated from Zurich to North America, Middle East, Africa and also introduced on our daily Mumbai and Delhi flights in August and September of this year respectively.
2) Swiss reported only a slight drop in passenger traffic and operating profits for Q1 2009. To what extent has Swiss been able to steer a course through the current downturn, and what are your projections looking like for the remainder of the year?
SWISS reports a seat load factor of 75.9% for the first six months of 2009. While it does represent a 2.9-percentage-point decline on January-to-June of last year, it was still above the industry average for the period. First-half load factor for SWISS’s European network remained relatively stable at 71.7% (compared to 70.9% for the same period last year), while intercontinental seat load factor slipped 4.6 percentage points to 77.9%.SWISS carried 6,514,909 passengers in the first six months of 2009 compared to 6,448,605 for January-to-June 2008 and operated 66,752 flights, a 1.5% year-on-year increase.
Our results for the first half 2009 were achieved through timely actions by our revenue management team in response to the economic situation. Our state-of-the-art revenue management and pricing system adapts extremely fast to the changes. As for the business outlook, we see no improvements as yet in our European markets. Here in Asia we realise modest improvements in the Greater China region, unfortunately not yet in India and Southeast Asia.
3) China and India are obviously the two key growth markets, in Asia and the world. How are your routes to these markets holding up, and do you have any further plans to expand your services to new Chinese/Indian destinations?
Our India routes where we serve Mumbai and Delhi show a mixed picture so far this year. The Delhi operation remains solid thanks to the high share of leisure and governmental traffic whereas our Mumbai flights were hit by a decrease of corporate traffic. Our flights to Greater China remain satisfactory. The passenger loads on our Shanghai route which we only launched last year in May are still increasing and our “pearl”, the daily Hong Kong flight remains very solid.
4) Swiss recently discontinued its Bangkok-Singapore service. What were the key reasons behind the decision, and do you have plans to relaunch the service if/when the situation improves?
Our Zurich-Bangkok-Singapore services were profitable for a number of years, but the financial crisis and the political unrests in Thailand end of last year brought the success-story to a sudden halt. Although the decision to terminate services to Singapore and to turn-around the aircraft in Bangkok was a big disappointment, it shows the ability of our management for swift decisions and efficient cost management.
I am convinced that our management would be in favour of resuming the flights, but a solid recovery of the market situation would have to be a prerequisite. Yet I am hopeful and it is for this reason why we maintain a small sales force in the Singapore market
5) What major developments are we likely to see form Swiss in the coming 12 months?
Definitely the phasing-in of our new A330-300 fleet and the re-fitting of our Business Class cabins in all A340-300s also with these new air-cushioned seats that can be turned into a two-metre lie-flat bed.
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