The Japanese carrier has cancelled a wet-lease contract for two B767- 300 freighters with the Air Transport Services Group, leaving ANA with four 767-300 freighters plus one 767-300BCF. The carrier has six more 767-300BCFs on order.
The carrier, like virtually all its competitors, has seen volumes decline nearly 20 per cent since late last year, reporting a 19.4 per cent decline in March, inline with previous months. February saw the largest decline with a 26.1 per cent drop.
ANA, which took delivery of its first converted B767-300 freighter last summer, had used the leased cargo planes to supplement its own capacity as it aggressively expanded its cargo activities. In addition to its joint venture with Japan Post, it started the “Allex†joint venture with four large Japanese logistics providers last July.
A bright spot for the carrier was new business gained this spring through a code share agreement with UPS under which ANA will move cargo for the integrator to destinations in Asia, while UPS in-turn takes freight from ANA to points in North America and Europe.
For fiscal 2008, which ended on March 31, ANA posted a group loss of US$43 million, but did not release net results for its cargo division. Revenues from international cargo came in at US$707 million, down 4.3 per cent from the previous financial year.
International tonnage grew 6.5 per cent during the period to 354,000 tonnes. In the domestic market ANA’s cargo revenues grew 8.3 per cent to $338 million as tonnage climbed 2.7 per cent to 475,000 tonnes.
