Frankfurt, Heathrow and Stansted see October cargo increases
10 / 11 / 2016
Europe’s leading cargo airports recorded a rise in airfreight throughput during October.
Frankfurt, the continent’s number one cargo hub in 2015, recorded a 4.8% rise in cargo volumes in October to just over 194,000 tonnes, the second largest October figure in the German airport’s history.
Frankfurt’s bounce, while still only a 1.6% increase for the first ten months of 2016 to 1.8m tonnes, is due to a “positive trend in the German industrial sector” said airport owner Fraport.
Heathrow, still celebrating a UK government nod to build a third runway, saw cargo volumes climb 6.7% in October to 141,500 tonnes, while the January to October throughput was up by 2.6% to 1.3m tonnes.
Hub owner Heathrow Airport Ltd said: “Cargo growth was particularly strong to fast-growing markets in Latin America and east Asia, with Mexico up 28%, China up 21% and Brazil up 18%.
“Trade with India, the world’s fastest growing large economy, also increased in October with cargo up 3.1% as the Prime Minister returned from her first bilateral overseas visit to forge a new global role for the UK.”
London Stansted airport, the UK’s third largest cargo hub in 2015, saw airfreight volumes continue to grow with a 2.8% increase in October to 22,400 tonnes, and up by 7.8% for 2016 year to date to 208,000 tonnes.
Europe’s number two and three cargo airports by volume in 2015, respectively Paris CDG and Amsterdam, have yet to report their October airfreight figures, with both hubs in positive territory for the first nine months of 2016, seeing cargo increases of 3.2% and 1.7%.