Frankfurt airport handled 5.4 percent less cargo in September than a year ago, the third consecutive single digit monthly decline at Europe’s top freight hub. For the same month, BAA, the British airports group, said cargo volumes at its seven UK hubs shrank 6.3 percent in September, the smallest decrease since November 2008.
Frankfurt handled nearly 189,000 tonnes of freight in September, taking volume for the first nine months of the year to 1.3 million tonnes, down 16.6 percent from the same period in 2008.
The fall in September traffic followed on a five percent year-on-year drop in cargo volume in August, the lowest monthly rate of decline in 2009, according to Fraport AG, Frankfurt’s owner.
Fraport said cargo traffic at its five airports, including Frankfurt and airports in Bulgaria, Turkey and Peru, declined 4.9 percent in September from a year ago to 189,000 tonnes.
BAA said cargo traffic at London Heathrow dipped 6.2 percent in September from a year ago to 110,244 tonnes, boosting volume for the first nine months of 2009 to just over 914,000 tonnes, 14 percent down on the same period in 2008.
London Gatwick posted a 21.7 percent decline to just 5,959 tonnes as long haul carriers shifted services to Heathrow. The airport, which BAA is in the process of selling, handled 51,121 tonnes of freight in the January-September period, nearly 40 percent less than in the first nine months of 2008.
London Stansted, BAA’s freighter and express hub, handled 16,253 tonnes of cargo last month, down 8.4 percent from September 2008.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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