Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Sep 14, 2012 9:18AM EDT
Frankfurt airport’s freight traffic dipped 4.1 percent in August from a year ago as an uncertain global economy and the deepening euro crisis continue to impact Europe’s second-largest air cargo hub.
The decline, to 164,406 metric tons from 172,415 tons in August 2011, also reflected the impact of the night flight ban imposed at the end of October last year that mainly affects freighter flights.
However, the August slowdown was a marked improvement on the 9 percent year-over-year decrease in the first six months of 2012. Fraport, the airport’s owner, has put planned investment on hold while it weighs the impact of the night flight ban.
Cargo traffic at Fraport’s five majority-owned airports — Frankfurt; Antalya, Turkey; Lima, Peru; and Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria — declined 2.3 percent in August to 195,776 tons.
Lima continued to buck the downward trend, with cargo traffic increasing 11.5 percent to 27,106 tons.
The decline in Frankfurt’s freight traffic contrasted with passenger numbers, which hit a record high for August of 5.6 million despite an eight-hour strike by Lufthansa cabin crew that cut traffic by 28,000.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
