The cargo airline carried 116.3m kilogrammes of cargo up until the end of June 2018, boosted by growth in life science, express, valuable and automotive shipments. Business also benefitted from closer alignment with the carrier’s transatlantic joint venture partner, Delta Cargo.
The opening of Virgin Cargo’s Pharma Zone at Heathrow in the fourth quarter of 2017 and confirmation of its Good Distribution Practice compliance in April helped to grow Virgin Atlantic’s pharma business by more than 50% compared to the first six months of last year, with double-digit growth in bookings from pharma freight forwarding customers recorded.
The booming e-commerce market continued to boost express shipments, while Virgin Atlantic’s expertise in moving high-value cars and car parts increased its share of the automotive cargo market.
Dominic Kennedy, Managing Director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo, reiterated the increase in demand for the airline’s core products and services, but added that exchange rates and other external factors may slow some parts of the air cargo market in the second half of 2018. Expectations are nonetheless optimistic, however: “With the momentum we have built, alongside the benefits of our partnerships with Delta Cargo and Virgin Australia, our expectations for the rest of the year remain positive.”
Load factor for the first six months of 2018 was helped by high demand from the UK to the US as well as to Delhi, Johannesburg, Dubai, Shanghai and the Caribbean. Half-year volumes from across the Virgin Atlantic network to the UK rose 2.9% overall. Tonnage on US-UK routes, meanwhile, climbed 7.7%.