Frankfurt Airport (FRA) saw cargo volumes decline anew in March as global economic uncertainty and persisting geopolitical tensions continued to weigh on its operations.
Europe's busiest cargo airport said air freight throughput — comprising airfreight and airmail — in Frankfurt continued to decrease by 7.1% year-on-year in March.
"[This is] once again reflecting the overall economic slowdown," FRA said of the slowdown in cargo traffic last month.
March's air cargo performance follows an 11% year-on-year decline recorded in February.
Month-on-month, however, the March performance at 168,335 tonnes was better than the 146,620 tonnes seen in February 2023.
For the month, aircraft movements climbed by 19.2% year-on-year to 32,125 takeoffs and landings.
Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) expanded by 15.8% year-on-year to around 2.0 million metric tons.
For the full year 2022, cargo volumes at the airport also dropped 13.3% to two million metric tonnes compared to 2021. This is also 5.6% lower than the pre-Covid level seen in 2019.
