Frankfurt Airport has returned to cargo volume growth for the first time in the current business year with a 5% surge in April to 181,948 tonnes.
Europe’s number one hub by cargo throughput said that Far East traffic was the main growth driver last month, with cargo tonnage to/from this region climbing by 9%.
Freight volumes on routes to/from China, Japan, and India recorded “dynamic double-digit growth”.
Airport operator Fraport said: “While cargo throughput declined during the first three months of 2016, cumulative cargo volumes in the year to April reached positive territory again for the first time, growing by 0.5%.”
April’s cargo traffic performance at the German hub was in marked contrast to passenger traffic, which declined by 2.5% compared with the same period of the previous year.
Earlier this week, Airports Council International (ACI), the European airport trade body, released statistics showing that freight traffic across its European airport members increased by 2.1% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of last year.
All of that growth was moved across airports based in EU countries; among non-EU nation airports, cargo traffic actually declined year on year by 0.2%.
