This represents a decline of around 19.0 percent on the prior-year period. Total nine-month revenues amounted to CHF 4.2 billion, in line with their 2024 level.
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Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) achieved an operating result or Adjusted EBIT of CHF 411.2 million for the first nine months of 2025. Compared with the same period of the previous year, this corresponds to a decrease of around 19.0 percent (Q1-Q3 2024: CHF 505.0 million). Total revenues for the period amounted to CHF 4.2 billion, in line with their prior-year level (Q1-Q3 2024: CHF 4.2 billion).
Difficult market environment and rising costs
“The result we achieved in the first nine months reflects the challenging market environment,” says SWISS Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Dennis Weber. “Our industry is presently contending with falling demand and still-rising costs. And these trends are clearly reflected in our earnings results. On our North American routes in particular – which are our most important and lucrative market of all – demand has tangibly declined. We are clearly seeing a certain reluctance to travel to the USA among European customers, especially in the Economy Class segment, where we have had to stimulate demand by offering lower fares. This in turn is reducing our revenues. On a positive note, our earnings benefited from lower kerosene prices. And we also improved the punctuality and the stability of our flight operations.”
Apart from fuel costs, rising costs had a negative impact. Higher charges and environmental levies, as well as increased personnel costs, were particularly significant factors. Planned growth at SWISS also proved unachievable to the extent desired, owing primarily to shortages of aircraft engines and cockpit personnel. As a result, both the number of flights operated and available seat-kilometer capacity for the first nine months of 2025 were only 1.7 percent above their prior-year levels. Total passengers carried for the period amounted to just under 14 million, an increase of 0.8 percent.
Improved flight operations performance
SWISS tangibly improved both the punctuality and the stability of its flight operations in the first-nine-month period. Some 68.1 percent of all flights departed on time, a 5.3-percentage-point increase on the same period last year (January to September 2024: 62.8 percent). On-time performance was improved particularly substantially for the peak summer holiday season, thanks to a range of actions taken to this end. SWISS also almost halved the number of short-notice flight cancellations for the period concerned, providing its customers with an appreciably more reliable overall flight program.
Investments in quality for the years ahead
SWISS marked the delivery of its first Airbus A350 complete with the entirely new ‘SWISS Senses’ cabin at the beginning of the fourth-quarter period. The arrival of the first of these advanced new twinjets ushers in a new era for the company. The SWISS A350 offers its passengers an air travel experience that sets new benchmarks in comfort, design and technology terms. The second of a total of ten A350 aircraft should also join the SWISS fleet by the end of this year.
Parallel to this, SWISS has further developed and refined its service product in all classes of travel on its long-haul flights. The enhanced inflight product complements the introduction of the Airbus A350 and underlines SWISS’s constant commitment to further raising its quality and comfort credentials.