From January-June 2010, the airline operated scheduled services on three routes: Milan (Malpensa) ' New York (JFK), Milan - Chicago, and Milan - Dubai - Hong Kong.
During the period, Cargoitalia flew a total of 173 rotations including charter flights. Average monthly utilisation was up 60% on the airline's first four months of operation, at a total of 3,375 block hours.
Cargoitalia carried 18,717,263 kilos of cargo from January-June (up from 6,800,000 in the period September-December 2009). This represented 72% average load factor by weight (up from 63%) and 89% average load factor by volume (up from 80%).
The airline's export traffic in the period represented 19% of the Milan-New York market, 27% of the Milan - Chicago market, 18% of the Milan- Hong Kong market and 11% of the Milan-Dubai market.
In addition to operating 100% of scheduled flights, 70% of all flights departed within 30 minutes of schedule, compared to 65% in the previous period.
The airline's strong performance is all the more remarkable for the fact that it includes the three weeks during which large parts of European airspace were shut down due to the Icelandic volcano ash cloud. Cargoitalia and its customers were virtually unaffected by the crisis, as a result of its fast action in re-positioning its aircraft outside the no-fly zone.
Commenting on the results, the airline's Managing Director ' Operations, Giacomo Manzon, says: 'We are absolutely delighted with these figures, which show improvement in every aspect of our operations.
'Our expanded schedule for the first half of 2010 has been very well-supported by the market, resulting in larger volumes of traffic, and increased load factors. But our strong growth has not been at the cost of reliability, which has actually improved to levels that are now quite unusual in freighter operations.
'With our third, enhanced aircraft now in service, and scheduled flights to Shanghai about to begin, the second half of 2010 will see considerable further growth in our business.'
He concludes: 'Once again, we are extremely grateful for the tremendous confidence the market has placed in Cargoitalia, and we look forward to adding to the range and quality of our services in the coming months and years.'
Cargoitalia now operates three MD11SF freighters, with up to 90,000 kilo capacity.
From 2012, the MD11Fs will be progressively phased out, as the airline takes delivery of new-generation freighter aircraft.
