Second quarter profits at Atlas Air have almost doubled to $38.9 million with all business segments seeing strong growth.
Net income for the period is up from $20.5 million in 2016 and net income for the first half is up from $21 million in 2016 to $38.2 million this year, while total operating revenue rose from $443.2 million in 2016 to $517.3 million this year.
Revenue for ACMI was up from $211.7 million to $229.1 million due to increased flying, partially offset by higher heavy maintenance costs.
Charter improved due to better commercial cargo yields, lower crew training costs and an increase in commercial and military demand, with revenue rising from $202.4 million to $225.8 million.
Higher revenue in the dry leasing segment primarily driven by placing six Boeing 767-300 converted freighters with Amazon between August 2016 and June 2017, while reducing interest expenses due to the scheduled repayment of debt for dry leased Boeing 777s also helped.
Atlas Air president and chief executive officer (CEO), William Flynn says: “Our growth also reflected an increase in aircraft utilisation and a rise in commercial charter yields. During the quarter, we started flying for Cathay Pacific and Yangtze River Airlines and added four 767-300 freighters for Amazon, including our fifth and sixth aircraft in June.”
It announced the ACMI placement of three Boeing 747-400 Freighters with Hong Kong Air Cargo on 2 August, with the first due in service in September 2017, with the others expected to follow in 2018.
Flynn says: “We are delighted that Hong Kong Air Cargo has chosen Atlas Air as its ACMI provider as it continues to build its global freighter network. This is a further testament to our strong focus on serving customers in the fast-growing Asia Pacific market.”
Hong Kong Air Cargo chairman and CEO, Guo Song Zhong adds: “After strengthening our regional network in recent years, it is now time to expand our Trans-Pacific network and look into other markets such as Europe, Australia, Africa and Latin America as we move forward.”
Describing the outlook, Flynn says: “We also continue to move more deeply into the faster-growing express and e-commerce markets. More than 70% of our current freighters operate for customers in these markets, and that percentage will increase as we ramp up from six aircraft for Amazon currently to an expected 20 by the end of 2018.”
“The evolution of e-commerce is transforming the global supply chain and creating significant new opportunities for Atlas. Freighter aircraft in scaled route networks, such as those that we operate, provide the just-in-time service that enables consumers to receive their orders as quickly as possible.”
