BBA Aviation (BBA) has had a "busy but encouraging" first half, says chief executive Simon Pryce. The company is finally seeing signs of recovery in the US - its main market for business and general flying - which helped drive a 3 per cent improvement in group revenues in the first six months of 2014. The disposal of the APPH landing gear business wiped $37m (£22m) from the top-line, but this was offset by a $31m contribution from acquisitions and a $16m gain from foreign exchange movements. That said, strip out any disposals, acquisitions and currency movements and revenues still rose 2 per cent.
The flight support division was the star performer in the first half, driving a 12 per cent improvement in revenue to $776m. Acquisitions contributed close to $30m of that, but on a like-for-like basis, revenue still grew a steady 8 per cent. What's more, while expansion costs weighed heavy on other divisions within the group, flight support's underlying operating profit grew 14 per cent to $66.6m.