Frankfurt, Brussels and Vienna are the latest European airports to report a rise in air cargo demand last year.
Europe’s largest cargo hub, Frankfurt, saw its air cargo volumes rise by 6.2% year on year in 2024 to 2.1m tonnes. However, volumes are still 3.7% down on pre-Covid 2019 levels.
The year also ended on a decline with cargo volumes in December dropping by 1.2% year on year.
Airport operator Fraport didn’t provide any commentary on the cargo figures, but the increases follow a buoyant year for the air cargo market with overall demand increasing by more than 10% thanks to e-commerce demand and modal shift as a result of missile attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea.
In Belgium, cargo volumes at Brussels airport amounted to 732,797 tonnes, or a 5% increase compared to 2023.
Flown cargo at Brussels Airport recorded a 5% increase compared to 2023 as the hub benefitted from overall growth and four new airlines started cargo operations: LATAM Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Farcargo and Virgin Atlantic.
In the full-freight segment, volumes remained stable compared to 2023, with a slight increase of 0.1%. Belly cargo increased by 23% due to the continued recovery of passenger flights and the new intercontinental destinations.
The integrator segment also remained stable with a slight 0.2% increase compared to 2023.
The primary import regions in 2024 were Asia, Africa and North America. Asia also ranked first in terms of exports, followed by North America and Africa.
Meanwhile, Vienna Airport ended the year 2024 with new record figures for air cargo volumes, registering an above-market 22% increase to 297,945 tons of cargo.
The airport said its figures were boosted by the continued return of long-haul bellyhold operations and rising pharma demand following investments in facilitates. The airport’s pharma volumes increased 15.3%.
Vienna Airport chief executive and chief operating officer Julian Jäger said: "With the best cargo results in the history of Vienna Airport, we are strengthening our position as a central hub for air cargo services in Central and Eastern Europe.
"This record clearly proves our first-class infrastructure and high quality of service, convincing customers worldwide. The strong growth is evident in both imported goods and global exports.
"The record regarding pharmaceutical handling is particularly pleasing: Vienna Airport is thus establishing itself even more strongly as a leading logistics expert for pharmaceutical shipments."
The airport operator said that the return of major airlines from Asia such as Hainan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA) to Vienna provided additional attractive belly capacities between Vienna and Shenzhen, Chengdu and Tokyo.
"Simultaneously, airlines such as Qatar Airways increased their frequencies to Vienna."
The additional cargo space led to a 44% increase in the cargo transported on passenger aircraft to 125,103 tons.
With 82,610 tons, freighter-only cargo dropped 3% compared with the previous year's levels and trucked volumes increased by 24% to 90,199 tons.
Import volumes were up 20% year on year to 163,026 tons in 2024, led by growing e-commerce volumes from Asia.
Exports from Vienna amounted to a total of 134,918 tons of cargo, up 23% year on year with the most important markets being Asia and the US.
Earlier this week, Air Cargo News reported that Heathrow, Liege and Schiphol had also seen their air cargo volumes increase last year.
Belgian cargo hub Liege reported a 15.6% year-on-year increase in cargo demand to 1.2m tonnes. The UK’s number one air cargo hub, Heathrow Airport, saw its cargo volumes increase by 10.4% compared with 2023 to 1.6m tonnes. And cargo throughput at Schiphol increased by 8% year on year in 2024 to 1.5m tonnes.
