IAG Cargo has announced its financial results from the first quarter of 2018, reporting commercial revenues of €276 million over the period from January 1st to March 31st, an increase of 10.9% compared to 2017. The overall yield for Q1 was up by 11.8% at constant exchange, while volumes were down by 0.7% and capacity was up by 3.6%.

“A buoyant premium market has continued in to the first quarter of 2018,” said Lynne Embleton, CEO at IAG Cargo. “We’ve experienced good market conditions across the majority of our regions, with Europe and Asia Pacific – and particularly India – leading the way. Our specialist pharmaceutical offering, Constant Climate, has delivered continued growth, moving life-saving vaccines across the globe.”

Lynne also mentioned that the company’s must fly non off loadable product has surpassed 4,000 shipments since its launch, moving a variety of goods, from the world’s most expensive perfumes to orthopaedic prosthetics and snowboards.

The first quarter of 2018 has also seen IAG Cargo exploring new ways of using technology for the purpose of enhancing customer experience. “Most notably, at the start of the year we undertook the first airside trial of a self-driving vehicle at a UK airport in a move to explore the future of autonomy in airport logistics,” said Lynne.

“Our network offering continues to expand with a new route from Madrid to San Francisco launched in April, a London Gatwick to Toronto service which began operating on 1 May and our first ever Dublin-Seattle flight launches on the 18th of May, while our Heathrow-Nashville flight launches today, May the 4th,” Lynne added.

For the remaining quarters of 2018, IAG Cargo will further invest into its operation and will keep its focus on enhancing the proposition and service delivered to its customers.