Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, the airport trade representative body, has released recently collated statistics that show that airfreight traffic across a wide spectrum of European gateways increased by 2.1% year on year over the first half of 2016.
Airports in EU member states enjoyed a somewhat more positive 3.2% increase, with a particularly noticeable spike in June of 6.4%.
However, gateways in non-EU states suffered a 3.9% year on year decrease in cargo throughput, and a particularly dramatic fall in June of 13.5%.
The overall result for June was an increase of 1.7% in cargo traffic through the 215 ACI European gateways covered by the organisation’s latest traffic report.
ACI Europe said that geopolitical instability and the threat of terrorism have hit passenger demand, and there will undoubtedly be an impact on the wider aviation industry.
The attacks at Brussels and Istanbul airports this year will be particularly damaging in this regard, while there may also be an adverse effect from the UK’s Brexit decision, ACI suggested.
One positive is the fall in oil price that has cut airlines’ fuel costs and helped their bottom lines.
