Swiss achieved an operating profit of Swfr719 million ($820 million) for the full-year 2023, up 58% from Swfr456 million in 2022 and the best result in its history. The airline attributes the strong performance to bumper post-pandemic demand for air travel combined with its competitive cost structure. Operating income rose 21% year on year to Swfr5.3 billion, adds the Lufthansa Group subsidiary. It carried around 16.5 million passengers in 2023, up about 30% year on year. Capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, was raised by 28%. Load factor increased 3.6 percentage points to 84.5%. "We are very pleased that we were able to significantly exceed expectations and achieve an absolute record result after the extremely challenging financial pandemic years," states Swiss' financial chief Markus Binkert. For the fourth quarter, operating profit was down 39% year on year to Swfr103 million while operating income rose by 6.8% to SwFr1.3 billion. In 2024, Swiss plans to expand its capacity to around 95% of pre-pandemic levels. It intends to focus on providing more sustainable flight operations, enhancing the travel experience of its passengers and investing in employees.

Australia's Rex Airlines has signed an interline agreement with UAE carrier Etihad Airways. "Passengers will be able to fly to either Sydney or Melbourne on Rex and thereafter connect on Etihad to a further 72 destinations across the globe," Rex's general manager of network strategy, Warrick Lodge says. The deal also offers Etihad guests with access from Sydney and Melbourne to destinations within the Rex network, including Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. This marks the second interline agreement for Rex. The airline has an existing interline arrangement with Delta Air Lines.

Lufthansa Group is seeing a rapid return in bookings to Asia-Pacific, which should flip the region from being a drag on performance to a source of advantage as the recovery there gains pace. Passenger numbers to Asia-Pacific are now at around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, the group's finance chief Remco Steenbergen during a call on 2023 results. That compares with a roughly full recovery elsewhere. Overall, group passenger numbers were at 84% of pre-pandemic levels last year. The group is seeing a strong performance on some Asian routes in particular. Chief executive Carsten Spohr says Hong Kong is "strong", and that pre-Covid levels on being regained on routes to India, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. Demand is strong for travel to Japan, but less so from the country. China is "a bit slower", Spohr acknowledges. "In relative terms, after three years of downside to Lufthansa being overexposed to Asia, this will now turn to upside," Spohr predicts, in the expectation that demand to and from the continent will rise in line with wider recovery. "You should now buy shares quickly," he quipped. The German group has long had a strong presence in Asia, but sales there were stymied by lockdowns and travel restrictions maintained long after the rest of the world had opened up following the pandemic's abatement. The closure of Russian airspace following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 also means that Lufthansa flights have to avoid the country, adding flight time and cost. But Spohr says this has paradoxically resulted in the group being "in some ways advantaged", as many travellers actively want to avoid Russian airspace. Many countries' airlines, notably China's, still fly across Russia. Responding to a question about Lufthansa’s presence in South America, Spohr said he "would love" to increase this but that the group lacked the Boeing 787s that were the best fit for the market. Boeing 777s are "too large" for the continent, he says, while Airbus A340s are "not efficient enough". He adds: "Once we have more 787s, you'll see us being more involved in that market." Data shows that Lufthansa mainline served seven destinations across Latin America last July, while Swiss flew to two.