Cargoitalia builds on solid start

CARGOITALIA carried 18,717 tons of cargo in the first six months of the year, up from 6,800 tons over the last four months of last year. This represented a 72 per cent average load factor by weight (up from 63 per cent) and 89 per cent average load factor by volume (up from 80 per cent).

The airline’s export traffic in the period represented 19 per cent of the Milan-New York, 27 per cent of the Milan-Chicago, 18 per cent of the Milan-Hong Kong and 11 per cent of the Milan-Dubai markets.

Commenting on the results, the airline’s managing director operations, Giacomo Manzon, says: “We are absolutely delighted with these figures, which show improvement in every aspect of our operations.

“Our expanded schedule for the first half of 2010 has been very well-supported by the market, resulting in larger volumes of traffic, and increased load factors.

“With our third, enhanced aircraft now in service, and scheduled flights to Shanghai about to begin, the second half of 2010 will see considerable further growth in our business.”

Cargoitalia now operates three MD-11SF freighters, with up to 90-ton capacity.