Cargo growth in Europe outshines passenger business in April

June 7, 2016

Europe’s air cargo market was given a lift as the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe reports in its monthly report that freight traffic rose year-on-year (YOY) by 5.5 per cent across the continent in April.

For once, the air cargo industry outshone the passenger business for growth, which grew YOY by only three per cent.

The European airport trade association notes April was the best monthly performance for freight in almost two years with most of that growth happening at European Union (EU) airports (+5.8 per cent) rather than non-EU ones (+1.2 per cent).

Most of Europe’s major hubs saw good growth in April including Heathrow Airport which saw a 3.4 per cent YOY uplift to 127,091 tonnes, while Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport saw a 10.6 per cent YOY rise to 162,000 tonnes.

Also seeing YOY monthly rises in April were Amsterdam Airport Schiphol by 6.8 per cent to 137,665 tonnes, Frankfurt Airport 4.7 per cent to 171,295 tonnes, Madrid 11.4 per cent to 34,657 tonnes, Barcelona 22 per cent to 11,222 tonnes and Rome 15.3 per cent to 12,458 tonnes.

ACI Europe director general, Olivier Jankovec says there are still security concerns across European gateways while flights in April were impacted by the Brussels terrorist attacks.

James Graham

James Graham is an award-winning transport media journalist with a long background in the commercial freight sector, including commercial aviation and the aviation supply chain. He was the initial Air Cargo Week journalist and retuned later for a stint as editor. He continues his association as editor of the monthly supplements. He has reported for the newspaper from global locations as well as the UK.