BA World Cargo revenue up for first half year

BRITISH Airways World Cargo has reported commercial revenue (flown revenue plus fuel surcharges) of £350.2 million for the first half of the financial year beginning 1 April, 2010. This represents an increase of 39.4 per cent against the same period last year, including a favourable exchange movement year-on-year.
Volumes of 2,294 million cargo tonne kilometres for the half year represent an increase of 2.4 per cent versus the same period last year. Cargo capacity for the same six-month period was down 1.4 per cent.
Overall yield (commercial revenue per CTK) increased by 36.1 per cent versus last year, driven by underlying price and product mix improvement. Excluding the impact of exchange rate movements, yield increased by 31.5 per cent.
Rachel Izzard, financial controller, BA World Cargo, said: “These results illustrate a continued strong performance in the second quarter. As a business we are focussed on continuing to drive forward with our premium product mix and also retaining the improvement in yields achieved over the period.”
Steve Gunning, managing director BA World Cargo, said: “It has been a satisfying performance in the first half of the year. The market recovery from 2009 has been sustained and we have been encouraged by the improvement in our revenue whilst holding on to the cost savings we achieved during the downturn. Although there is not the same level of inventory re-stocking as last year, we expect demand to grow during the peak season. As demonstrated through our long haul freighter programme where we have increased frequencies out of Hong Kong, we will look for opportunities to grow our business, but only in a rational and economically viable manner.”