Virgin Atlantic Cargo has achieved its strongest revenue performance in the last five years, with 13% growth to £222 million.

The achievement was supported by a 6% annual growth in volume to more than 244,000 tonnes, the airline’s best result since 2010.

The year saw the best-ever monthly and route performances, with growth achieved across the majority of commodities flown, with high value segments such as pharmaceuticals seeing a 50% year-on-year increase in volumes.

The airline achieved new records for tonnage from the UK and the US, as well as on direct services from cities including Delhi and Los Angeles.

December also saw Virgin’s highest-ever daily import and export volumes through London Heathrow.

Virgin and customers continued to enjoy more benefits from its joint venture with Delta Cargo as well as from the growth of revenue and volumes generated for Virgin Australia’s long-haul international network.

In 2018, Virgin Australia extended its network with the launch of daily Sydney-Hong Kong services in July, adding much needed capacity, especially for e-commerce.

The introduction of double daily Johannesburg services by Virgin Atlantic at the end of October also contributed to a 15% in volumes and a 22% boost in Heathrow-Johannesburg revenues.

Dominic Kennedy, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo says: “We achieved particularly strong growth from June onwards, resulting in the best Q4 performance in our 34-year history, with positive contributions from across our network and partnerships. As an airline that is passionate about customer service, it is also a tribute to our entire cargo team that, during such a busy year for volumes, we achieved our highest-ever score for customer experience.”

This year will see new investments including the arrival of the first of four Airbus A350-1000s, a new route for cargo to Tel Aviv, moving to a state-of-the-art facility at Heathrow with partner Delta Cargo, and investments in new digital technologies.