AAWW more than doubles second quarter profit

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWW), a New York-based global air cargo asset and service provider, has more than doubled second quarter net profit to US$11.3 million, drawn on $240 million in revenue over the three months ending June 30, according to the Shipping Gazette.

"Our strong second quarter results, like our record first quarter performance, reflect the actions we have taken to transform our business, improve efficiency and minimise commercial risk," said AAWW president and CEO William Flynn.

"We are encouraged by the rate of reduction of wide-body freight capacity we see in the Asia-Pacific region. As the decline in airfreight demand has moderated in recent months, the rate of capacity reduction in this key airfreight market has begun to approach the rate of reduction in demand," he said.

"We continue to expect solid full-year earnings growth in 2009. We have improved our earnings visibility and our risk profile, and we are generating strong performance deep into a difficult cycle," he said.

 Mr Flynn said the company focussed on productivity gains, savings and retirement of older 747-200 aircraft, and transformation of the Polar scheduled service business having enabled the company to produce higher profits despite a "difficult demand environment".

The substantial increase in second quarter earnings was achieved despite a smaller fleet, an increase in heavy-maintenance expense on 747-400F aircraft and a reduction in the AMC Charter "pegged" fuel price. Similar to the first quarter of 2009, AMC flying was significantly higher than the flying levels experienced in the fourth quarter of 2008, said a company statement.

Second quarter results also reflected last October's unbundling of Polar Air Cargo Worldwide from AAWW and the consolidation of Global Supply Systems Limited (GSS), a private company in which AAWW holds a 49 per cent interest since April.
"Results for the second quarter of 2009 included a pretax gain of $100,000 on the consolidation of GSS, while results for the second quarter of 2008 included a pretax gain of $2.7 million on the disposal of aircraft," said the company statement.
 

Said Mr Flynn: "While global airfreight traffic in the past few months is showing signsof improvement, there is still an imbalance between traffic and capacity that has put pressure on airfreight yields. It appears that business inventories have been reduced, but they also appear to remain relatively high in comparison to final sales, and the timing of the eventual recovery in business and end-user consumption is still uncertain."

Source: Transportweekly