Brussels sees first cargo increase since terror attacks

Brussels Airport saw a 6.6% growth in cargo volumes during August, due to a strong performance of the freighter aircraft segment.
It was also the first monthly airfreight throughput increase at the Belgian gateway since the March 22 terror attacks in the passenger terminal which left 16 people dead. A further 16 people died in an explosion at a Brussels Metro station on the same day.
Commenting on the results, the airport said: “The full-freighter segment in particular did exceptionally well, with a growth of 26.2% thanks to the further development of Ethiopian Airlines Cargo.
“The express services increased by 3.8% compared to August 2015 thanks to the worldwide growth of e-commerce.
“Belly cargo shows a decline of 8.9% compared to the same month last year, mainly due to the departure of Jet Airways.”
Brussels, number ten by annual tonnages among Europe’s cargo hubs in 2015 at 489,000 tonnes, is the latest airport to publish its August 2016 volumes.
Cargo throughput (airfreight+airmail) at Frankfurt, Europe’s number cargo hub in 2015, remained “almost stable” at 171,871 tonnes in August, down 0.1% on the same month last year.
To date, the German airport has seen a marginal 0.7% increase in year to date figures of just under 1.4m tonnes for the eight months of 2016 ended August.
Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, third by European volumes in 2015 recorded a 1.3% decline in August to just under 136,000 tonnes but for the year to date is 1.6% ahead of the same period in 2015, with just over 1m tonnes for the first eight months of 2016.

Source: Brussels Airport