Airfreight profits at Panalpina fell by 7% in the first quarter of 2019 despite volumes growing 8%.

In the first quarter of the year, Panalpina handled 259,900 tonnes of airfreight compared to 240,500 tonnes in the same period of 2018.

Gross profit per ton was down 10% to 666 Swiss francs (CHF), with profit measured in EBIT decreasing 7% to CHF 24.9 million.

The EBIT-to-gross-profit margin came in at 14.4% compared to 15.1% in the first quarter of 2018.

For the company as a whole, net forwarding revenue was up from CHF1.41 billion to CHF1.48 billion, and consolidated profits increased 15.8% to CHF19.2 million.

Stefan Karlen, CEO of Panalpina says: “We improved profitability despite a challenging market environment and during a time when considerable management resources were absorbed by the M&A topic. This demonstrates the underlying quality and strength of our organisation.”

Following the take-over by DSV, Panalpina will not be giving an outlook for the year because it is more challenging, and also for legal reasons but Karlen promises that Panalpina will conduct business as usual.

He says: “We have continued to win new business after the transaction was announced and we are determined to keep doing so in the weeks and months ahead.”