Far Eastern slowdown blamed for Frankfurt Airport fall

Frankfurt Airport has seen cargo volumes fall by 4.2 per cent in August to 172,055 tonnes because of a slowdown in world trade, particularly in the Far East.

Throughout 2015, Frankfurt Airport has only seen year-on-year (YOY) cargo volume increases in February, when it rose by 1.8 per cent to 162,068 tonnes, and in April, when it was up by 0.8 per cent to 173,274 tonnes. The year started with a 0.8 per cent fall to 159,740 tonnes in January, followed by the increase in February then a 6.1 per cent YOY decline in March to 189,546 tonnes.

After the April increase, volumes fell in May by 3.1 per cent to 179,831 tonnes, which was followed by a 2.5 per cent YOY decline of 173,984 tonnes. July saw a YOY fall of two per cent to 177,840 tonnes before the 4.2 per cent fall in August. Cargo volumes have fallen by 2.2 per cent year-to-date to 1.4 million tonnes.

Frankfurt Airport’s operator, Fraport says: “Cargo dropped by 4.2 per cent 172,055 tonnes, attributed to the weakness in world trade, especially in the Far East.”

Other Fraport operated airports have had varied results in August. Ljubljana Joze Pucnik International Airport in Slovenia has seen cargo increase by 13.3 per cent YOY to 811 tonnes. Jorge Chavez International Airport in Peru’s capital, Lima, saw an increase of 2.3 per cent to 27,302 tonnes. Of Fraport’s Bulgarian airports, Burgas Airport has seen an increase of 100 per cent 648 tonnes but Varna Airport saw volumes fall by 38.2 per cent to nine tonnes. Hannover-Langenhagen Airport saw an increase of 30.6 per cent to 1,170 tonnes and China’s Xi’an Xianyang International Airport was up by 25 per cent to 19,090 tonnes.

Between January and August, Joze Pucnik was up by 0.7 per cent to 6,479 tonnes while Jorge Chavez was down by 0.6 per cent to 182,689 tonnes. Burgas was up by 100 per cent to 6,683 tonnes and Varna has seen an increase of 41 per cent to 64 tonnes. Hannover has seen an increase of 20.2 per cent to 11,285 tonnes and Xi’an is up by 13.9 per cent to 131,836 tonnes.