Airports update 28 March

IN Asia, Changi Airport handled 128,048 tonnes of cargo in February, a decline of 1.9 per cent compared to a year ago due to the Chinese New Year holidays.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA, right) saw a 5.9 per cent drop in cargo tonnage at 242,000 tonnes in February. The combined cargo volume for the first two months of the year showed a year-on-year growth of 3.1 per cent reaching 575,000 tonnes. On a rolling 12-month basis, HKIA handled 4.1 million tonnes of cargo, an increase of 18.6 per cent over the same period last year.

In North America, a plan to build a multi-million-dollar airfreight hub at Windsor International Airport in Ontario is on track. Lufthansa Consulting, hired to determine the potential at the airport, found that Windsor has the ability to handle up to 90,000 tonnes of commercial airfreight within 25 years. The airport paid CA$110,000 (US$112,700) last year to former Michigan governor James Blanchard to lobby regulators in Washington as part of efforts to establish a local air cargo hub.

Ohio’s Rickenbacker International Airport saw cargo movement fall 13 per cent to about 10.1 million pounds in February.

Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania reported a cargo slide of three per cent this February compared to February 2010 and is down 3.5 percent so far for 2011.

While in Europe, jobs could be lost at Kent International Airport in the UK after it launched a wide-scale review of all staff. Charles Buchanan, chief executive of airport owner Infratil, said it was reviewing working patterns and conditions of all staff. The amount of freight handled by the airport fell to 1,800 tonnes in January, down by almost a third on the previous year.

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