Frankfurt, Europe’s number one air cargo hub by volume last year, and fourth placed London-Heathrow both recorded a decline in tonnages for October.
The German hub saw volumes fall by 1.5% to 185,222 tonnes, the eighth month in a row that Frankfurt has seen red ink for its monthly throughputs versus like period 2014. For the year so far, Frankfurt’s volume are down 2.5% to just over 1.7m tonnes.
Meanwhile, Heathrow’s October throughput declined 1.4% to 132,575 tonnes, the sixth month in a row that the UK’s top air cargo gateway has registered a fall. For the first ten months of 2015, Heathrow’s overall volumes are near static at 1.2m tonnes, seeing an increase of just 0.1%.
In a statement, Heathrow – which is pushing for government approval to build a third runway — said that its emerging market cargo volumes increased 3.4% over the past 12 months – “notably to Turkey up 26% and Brazil up 7% – underlining the export growth potential an expanded Heathrow with up to 40 new long-haul connections would deliver".
Heathrow is also beginning engagement with the freight industry on a cargo blueprint that will "double Heathrow’s cargo capacity and boost the UK’s global export competitiveness by enabling faster, more efficient cargo movements".
