Busy December gives Frankfurt hope

FRANKFURT Airport (FRA) saw airfreight traffic continue its upward trend in December 2009. “Nearly 174,000 metric tons of airfreight represent a significant 29.1 per cent gain over December 2008 and a fourfold increase over the seven per cent rise in November 2009,” said Fraport executive board chairman, Stefan Schulte.Handling 8,429 metric tons on 13 December, 2009, FRA recorded its second-busiest day ever for freight throughput, only a little behind 17 September, 2006 when it handled 8,477 metric tons.Nonetheless, traffic figures for the full year 2009 declined overall. Airfreight tonnage dropped by 10.1 per cent to 1.8 million metric tons. Airmail tonnage declined by a calculated 11.3 per cent to well over 80,000 metric tons. Aircraft movements slipped by 4.7 per cent to about 436,000 takeoffs and landings. Maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) shrank by 4.2 per cent to 27.2 million metric tons.“Because of the reconfirmation of a clearly upward trend in passenger and airfreight traffic in December 2009, however, we are starting the year 2010 optimistically,” Shulte said.The Fraport Group as a whole closed the 2009 year with a 9.7 per cent drop in cargo traffic to 2.1 million metric tons.