Brussels Airport continued to report double-digit air cargo growth in July as the European hub recorded an 18% jump in volumes compared with the same month a year ago.
The Belgian airport continued to outpace its rivals as air cargo throughput increased to 43,539 tons in July compared with 36,883 tons a year earlier.
Most of the growth stemmed from new freighter services from Ethiopian Airways, Qatar Cargo, Yangtze River Express and KF Aerospace.
In total, full-freighter volumes increased by 71.6% compared with a year ago to 14,191 tons. Belly cargo volumes registered a decline of 1% to 11,767 tons and integrator cargo was up 5.1% to 17,580 tons.
“Brussels Airport has been recording significant growth for some months now, courtesy of the four new cargo airlines that started operating at the airport in the last twelve months, and is outperforming the rest of Europe, where figures are only slightly positive or even negative,” it said.
“Belly cargo, the cargo carried on board passenger aircraft, was slightly down on July of last year, as the aircraft traditionally carry more passengers during the summer months, leaving less room for cargo.”
In an interview in the latest edition of Air Cargo News, head of cargo Steven Polmans said the airport was hoping to add “one or two” new freighter operators by the end of the year.
