IAG Cargo has today announced its Q1 2016 results, reporting commercial revenue of €262m over the period from January 1 to March 31, 2016, a decrease of 1.5 per cent1 compared to 2015. Adjusting the prior year’s figures to reflect a directly comparable operation, commercial revenue decreased 8.6 per cent1 versus last year at constant exchange.
Challenging market conditions continue, on a like for like basis IAG Cargo"™s volumes were down 1.8 per cent, while yields decreased 6.9 per cent1 at constant exchange.
Drew Crawley, CEO at IAG Cargo, commented: "These are respectable results in the face of a challenging market. The trading conditions experienced towards the end of last year have continued into 2016. The industry is also cycling over the west coast port strike that dominated the start of 2015, producing an unusually strong start to last year. Despite this high benchmark, the numbers reported today show that a relentless focus on premium products, strong cost control and precision management of our capacity and yields is helping our business to withstand these headwinds.
Our focus on premium products continues to pay off with double digit growth in tonnages of our Constant Climate and Prioritise products.
Our network expansion over the coming months will also be welcome news for our customers as we expand into strong cargo markets, we have announced routes from Madrid into both Shanghai and Johannesburg this year. Our expansion in South America to Lima, San Juan and San Jose will see new flows of perishable and pharmaceuticals enter our network. Meanwhile our new North American service into San Jose, California will enable hi-tech products to enter and exit one of the world"™s leading innovation capitals.
Q2 will also see our integration of Aer Lingus Cargo pass several major milestones, bringing new routes to our network from Dublin to Hartford, Newark and Los Angeles this year.
The IAG Cargo model and strategy remains unchanged and we are confident that this is appropriate for the current market conditions our industry is experiencing."
