Leipzig passes one million tonne tonnage mark for 1st time

January 20, 2017

Freight volumes at Leipzig/Halle Airport in 2016 passed the magical one million tonne mark for the first time as the airport handled 1,052,372.4 tonnes.

This was a 6.5 per cent increase over the previous year at Europe’s fifth largest cargo hub, Germany’s second busiest by volumes after Frankfurt Airport.

The sterling year for tonnage was capped off with a strong peak season as Liepzig set a monthly record was set in the history of the company in December when the airport handled 97,105.7 tonnes of cargo.

Leipzig becomes the fifth European gateway to pass one million tonnes in 2016, joining Frankfurt, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Heathrow Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Freight rose at Leipzig strongly, but passenger traffic fell sharply by 5.6 per cent as the slump in demand was caused by various geopolitical factors and scheduled flights were also affected by strikes at other airports yet again, which led to cancellations of service.

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.