IAG Cargo has today announced its Q2 2017 results, reporting commercial revenue of €260m over the period from April 1 to June 30, 2017, an increase of 7.6 percent on 2016 at constant exchange. Overall yield for the quarter was up 1.1 percent at constant exchange. Volumes were up 6.4 percent, while capacity grew by 5.9 percent.  Lynne Embleton, CEO at IAG Cargo, commented: “The airfreight market continues to be very competitive. Our overall performance has been robust and the market has gradually improved through the first half of 2017. This improvement has come from ongoing growth in cross border e-commerce and pharmaceutical shipments, with encouraging regional performance in markets such as Asia Pacific and Europe. “Demand from Asia Pacific has been strong throughout Q2 2017, with volumes up 8.7% versus 2016. Part of this increase has been driven by the two-way sea freight congestion between China and Europe, although volumes have also been boosted by strong consumer demand for products ranging from high end electronic tech to the globally trending fidget spinners. India has also performed well, mainly due to a high demand for express and time-sensitive freight. Our time and temperature sensitive offering, Constant Climate, continues to support a burgeoning pharmaceutical industry in India. “This month we announced that Critical, our emergency shipment product, will now be available to forwarders transporting Constant Climate shipments. This means that customers shipping pharmaceutical products can now upgrade emergency medical shipments to Critical, giving them non-off loadable status. This follows the continued success of Critical which recently surpassed 2,000 shipments since launch. “In May we launched our new loyalty programme FWD.Rewards, which has been specifically designed to meet the needs of small and medium sized forwarders. Since its launch, we have already seen over 500 forwarders join the scheme and begin to earn points that can be used to pay for cargo shipments, hotel stays or reward flights. “Meanwhile, the integration of LEVEL, IAG’s new low cost long haul operation, into our network has offered our customers further breadth and flexibility with a new wide-body cargo gateway based in Barcelona. This follows the successful integration of Aer Lingus and opens up three new routes into the Americas from Barcelona to Los Angeles (LAX), Punta Cana (PUJ) and Buenos Aires (EZE). “While IATA’s revised forecasts for 2017 are positive, we anticipate that the challenges we face as an industry, with increasing competition and capacity coming from road, rail and sea freight, will continue. In this competitive market we're focused on developing our products, embracing digital innovations and always looking to improve how we deliver for our customers.”