IAG CARGO suffered a revenue slump of nearly 12 per cent last year, in a business generally blighted by market shrinkage, over-capacity and unfavourable currency fluctuations.
The merged entity of British Airways and Iberia saw cargo-tonne-kilometres [CTKs] drop by seven per cent in the period, as a big imbalance in supply and demand sent yields tumbling in all markets.
In its 2013 full-year results, IAG reports commercial revenue (flown revenue, plus fuel surcharges) of €1,073 million over the period from January 1 to December 31, 2013 – a decrease of 11.8 per cent on 2012.
Volumes of 5,653 million CTKs for the year represent a decrease of seven per cent on 2012. Overall yield (commercial revenue per CTK) for the year decreased by 5.2 per cent on 2012.
Given the state of the market, this wasn’t the poor performance the numbers suggest, insists chief executive Steve Gunning.
“With these tough market conditions and in particular our exposure to the North Atlantic where over-capacity was rife, our yield decline was not as bad as it could have been,” he points out.
