British Airways, Europe's second largest airline, today said cargo revenues for the year ending March 31 slipped 4.3 percent to 463 million pounds ($820 million) from $857 million as a 9.7 percent drop in yields --or the revenue earned per kilo of freight carried -- overshadowed volume 4.2 percent higher at 796,000 metric tons from 764,000 tons.
Traffic, measured by cargo ton-kilometers, grew by 6 percent on a 4 percent increase in capacity resulting from the introduction of a third long haul freighter in August and short haul European freighters in October. "This is a positive result for our business," said Gareth Kirkwood, managing director of BA World Cargo.
The load factor, or share of available freight capacity used, improved by one percentage point to 67.6 percent.
The cargo market deteriorated in the fourth quarter with yields down 12.1 percent from a year ago, leaving revenues up just 1.8 percent at $200 million on a 14.8 percent rise in traffic to 209,000 tons. Load factor during the quarter firmed by 1.5 percentage points to 66.1 percent.
BA didn't release separate financial figures for full-year cargo operations.
The airline's overall operating profit rose to $717 million from $522 million and pre-tax earnings totalled $269 million from $239 million.
Group revenues for the year were down 1.7 percent at $13.4 billion but BA Chairman Lord Marshall said they are expected to rise by two to three percent in the current fiscal year.
— By Bruce Barnard
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