Air Transport Services Group (NASDAQ: ATSG) saw its adjusted pretax earnings for the third quarter increase 15% to $125.5 million based on increased demand for leases of its cargo aircraft.
“In the third quarter, ATSG’s businesses continued to deliver better than expected results, aided by a quarterly record seven deployments of [Boeing] 767 freighter aircraft to its aircraft leasing customers, and by seizing opportunities for charter and cargo ACMI operations to supplement the capacity of our customers,” said President and CEO Rich Corrado in a statement on Thursday.
ATSG’s adjusted earnings rose 48% to $31.8 million. The adjusted per-share earnings were 44 cents, up from 31 cents in 2019.
The Wilmington, Ohio-based company’s biggest cargo airline customers include UPS (NYSE: UPS), DHL (OTCMKTS: DPSGY), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), NAC, Amerijet and Cargojet.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, ATSG’s capital spending through the first nine months totaled $394.3 million, up 17%, which included expenditures of $273.4 million for the purchase of eight 767 freighters in the first nine months of 2020, and for freighter modifications.
Cargo airline activities helped to offset ATSG’s grounded passenger aircraft fleet due to COVID-19 government travel restrictions.
“We will achieve our goal of delivering a record 12 767-300 freighters in 2020 to external customers, including four in the fourth quarter, while also re-leasing three 767-200s to customers in Kenya, Malaysia and Mexico,” Corrado said.
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