Brazilian cargo airline ABSA’s revenue up 20%

Brazilian cargo airline ABSA’s revenue up 20% Brazil’s ABSA Cargo Airline on Monday reported a 20 percent increase in sales for 2007 of $244.2 million, compared to $203.5 million in 2006.
   “For the second consecutive year, the U.S. dollar devaluation in relation to the Brazilian Real contributed for the imports to drive the company's positive performance,” the airline said in a statement.
   Imports accounted for 58 percent of ABSA’s revenue, amounting to $141.4 million, up 33 percent over 2006. Exports were up 5 percent year on year.
   ABSA’s President-Director Norberto Jochmann said exports were boosted by supply shortage problems faced by neighboring Venezuela at the end of last year. 'ABSA was an active player in this extra flight traffic, with close to 40 freight flights to Venezuela until mid December 2007. This unexpected additional deal contributed decisively to improve the end result of our export air cargo result,' he said.
   Jochmann said the company expects imports to continue to grow fast, while exports will maintain small growth. Those factors, combined with a lack of available additional transportation capacity, mean the company has set a relatively low revenue growth target of 5 percent for 2008.
   'With the optimized utilization of our present fleet, there is no space availability for higher growth,” Jochmann said. “We are striving to lease temporarily, through the aircraft exchange mode, one B767-300F from LAN Cargo, that would enable us to increase our space offering to the Brazilian market. However, for that to happen, we need approval of the partial leasing model by Brazilian Aeronautical Authorities.”