Virgin Atlantic Cargo carries 224,139 tons in 2014

The airfreight carrier posted revenues of $238 million for the year.    Virgin Atlantic Cargo reported revenues of £221 million (U.S. $238 million) for 2014, thanks to strong revenue and volume gains in the United Kingdom and Europe, according to a statement from the company.
   The airfreight carrier said revenues in the UK increased 6 percent compared to 2013, while revenues in Europe grew 5 percent.
   Virgin Atlantic carried 224,139 tons of cargo in 2014, matching its result for last year despite reducing capacity via route and aircraft changes. The airline said it had a load factor of 74 percent, “well ahead of the industry average.”
   John Lloyd, Virgin Atlantic’s Director of Cargo, said of the results, “When you look at the industry as a whole, our business and share of the market has remained resilient for each of the last five years in what remains a very challenging operating environment. IATA data shows that cargo revenues for the industry were basically unchanged at $62 billion in 2014 and are still $5 billion below their 2011 peak.
   “Overall, we held our position well last year and achieved a slight increase in our market share thanks to continuing high load factors, which enabled us to make another strong contribution to the airline’s financial results,” said Lloyd.
   Lloyd added that with Detroit joining the Virgin Atlantic network in June and the carrier increasing frequencies to Atlanta, New York (JFK), Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, the airline is “quite confident for the year ahead.”
   “Detroit will give us another gateway in the U.S. Midwest and reinforces our strong commitment to customers on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Lloyd. “It remains an extremely competitive market but we are adding capacity on routes where we are already well established as a high quality carrier or in new markets like Atlanta and Detroit where we can see good cargo potential. Through our transatlantic joint venture with Delta Air Lines we will be able to offer customers a choice of 245 departures a week to and from 19 destinations.”