Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Jun 15, 2012 11:34AM EDT
Frankfurt airport’s freight traffic slumped 10.3 percent in May from a year ago as Europe’s second largest cargo hub continued to suffer from a night flight ban and a weakening global economy.
The decline, to 172,135 metric tons, left traffic for the first five months of the year down 11.2 percent from the year earlier period at 831,790 tonnes, according to airport owner Fraport AG.
A temporary night flight ban in late October, made permanent by a court in April, mainly affects flights by freighters operated by Lufthansa Cargo, the airport’s biggest cargo customer.
Cargo traffic at Fraport’s majority-owned airports — Frankfurt; Antalya, Turkey; Burgas and Varna, Bulgaria; and Lima, Peru — shrank 8.5 percent in May to 194,778 tonnes.
Lima bucked the trend, with traffic growing 5.9 percent to 22,121 tonnes.
The five Fraport airports handled 932,387 tonnes of freight in the first five months of 2012, 10.3 percent less than in the same period in 2011.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.