There were double-digit growth rates both for unloadings from China and for loadings in the opposite direction, while European traffic fared less well
Frankfurt Airport (FRA) said air cargo volumes slightly declined in October, but were broadly level with the previous year.
Airport operator Fraport reported that 179.4 metric tons of cargo were handled during the month – a slight decline of 0.1%.
“Until the middle of the month, volumes were significantly down year on year due to lingering effects from China’s Golden Week in 2025, before recovering over the remaining weeks of October.
"Golden Week was particularly challenging for international supply chains this year, as it coincided with China’s Mid-Autumn Festival and led to an extended eight-day break in operations (October 1- 8),” said Fraport.
The end of the de minimis exemption in the US had a significant impact on e-commerce exports from China and Hong Kong to the US, stated Fraport. One side-effect was an increase in the export of e-commerce products from China and Hong Kong to Europe.
In Frankfurt, China traffic remained a clear growth driver, with a 19% increase. There were double-digit growth rates both for unloadings from China and for loadings in the opposite direction.
Far East traffic rose by 3.7% overall, while Middle East tonnage fell by 5.3% as a result of reduced freighter capacities with Qatar.
While US unloadings in Frankfurt continued to rise, the downward trend for loadings to the US continued, said Fraport. As the declines with Canada were slightly larger, total North America traffic fell marginally by 0.4 %.
The overall tonnage to Latin America dropped only slightly by 0.9%, as significant increases to Mexico, up 14.2%, helped offset declines elsewhere.
Africa traffic, which is a small component of overall volumes, fell by 4.1 %. Intra-Europe traffic declined by 2.8 %. On domestic German routes, traffic was up 17.1 %, but this was unable to balance out falls in traffic with Turkey, down -15.7 %.
Frankfurt Airport’s cargo throughput rose 0.6% year on year in September, helped by traffic to and from Asia, although volumes between other regions fell.
