Frankfurt airport's cargo volumes dipped 0.4% in the first half of 2018, hindered by "temporary capacity bottlenecks" in cargo handling, a decline in Far East-bound traffic and reduced German industrial output.
Reporting its interim six months financial results, airport operator Fraport said that Germany's number one cargo hub handled 1,075,247 tonnes in the six months ended June 2018, down 0.4% on like period 2017.
It stated: "The slowdown in growth in the German industrial sector increasingly reduced growth in cargo traffic. In addition, temporary capacity bottlenecks in freight handling at the end of the second quarter also depressed figures.
"In the regional breakdown, particularly markets in the West tended to perform better on the whole. While the cargo tonnage on routes to North and Latin America increased by 3.2% and 13.9% respectively it decreased in particular on Eastern European routes (with onward delivery to the Far East) by 30.4%."
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