BAWC feels tentative upswing

BRITISH Airways World Cargo has reported commercial revenue (flown revenue plus fuel surcharges) of £402 million for the nine months beginning April 2009. This represents a decrease of 25.1 per cent against the same period last year, including a favourable exchange movement year-on-year.

Volumes of 3,443 million cargo tonne kilometres for the nine months represent a decrease of 4.4 per cent versus last year. Volumes in the third quarter alone stood at 1,203, a 3.2 per cent increase versus the same period last year.

Cargo capacity over the past nine months was down 4.9 per cent compared to last year and overall yield (commercial revenue per CTK) decreased by 21.7 per cent versus last year. Excluding the impact of exchange rate movements, yield decreased by 30 per cent. Taking the third quarter in isolation, yield declined by 15.9 per cent.

Rachel Izzard, financial controller, BA World Cargo, said: “We’ve seen a marked improvement in the third quarter of our financial year, helped by a particularly strong peak, but there’s still a long way to go until we return to the level of performance we last saw in 2007. Our premium product portfolio continues to perform well, particularly our temperature sensitive shipment product Constant Climate, which has now been rolled out across more than 50 stations throughout our network.”

Steve Gunning, managing director, BA World Cargo, said: “While volumes and yields improved in the third quarter it is by no means certain that we are on a straight path to recovery. However, I am cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see gradual improvements in overall market conditions over the course of the year and having reduced our cost base significantly over the past 12 months, we are in a strong position to take advantage of a more robust economic climate.”