A preliminary analysis of cargo traffic data for global airports for December indicates an overall shortening of the peak season for air carriers. With the exception of a few positive examples in Europe and Asia, volumes and traffic at most of the world’s major airports have declined year-on-year, with overall very modest growth in 2018, below the general expectation of 4-5% annual growth in air cargo volumes. An uncertain global trade environment, volatile economic performance in several markets and the upcoming Brexit contribute to lower air cargo performance in the second half of 2018. Whether these trends will continue in 2019 remains to be seen, but given the continued stalemate in US-China talks, the ongoing government crisis in the US that is starting to affect aviation across the country, and the UK vote against the Brexit plan , it is possible that the annualized data will continue to be gloomy in the near future.
Let’s take a closer look at the figures for December for some of the largest cargo airports in the world:
Asia Pacific
Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)reported that its December throughput was down 5.5% YoY to 448,000 tons. Since the beginning of the year, HKG has grown by 1.5%. HKG attributes the decline in freight traffic to global economic uncertainty, with traffic to and from Europe and South Asia declining most significantly in December.
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN): Cargo turnover rose 3.4% y/y to 171,840 tons in December, including 160,020 tons of cargo and 11,819 tons of mail. CAN attributed the year-over-year increase to growth in both international and outbound cargo. Inbound cargo volumes rose 2.1% y/y in December, while outbound cargo volumes increased 4.5% y/y in the month. Throughout the year, CAN had one of the best performances among airports that published results for December, with an increase in cargo turnover by 6.5% compared to 2017.
Shanghai InternationalPudong Airport (PVG) handled 323,000 tons of cargo, resulting in a 4.5% year-on-year decline in cargo volume in December. The volume of incoming cargo for the month decreased by 13.6%, and the volume of outgoing cargo – by 3.8%.
Cargo turnover at KoreanIncheon Airport (ICN) fell 5.2% y/y to 245,139 tons in December. From November to December, volumes decreased by 6.2%. Overall for 2018, ICN’s throughput increased by 1.0% YoY to approximately 2.95 million tonnes.
Europe
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) cargo turnover fell 3.4% y/y to 137,636 tonnes in December. For the full year, AMS cargo turnover fell by 2.5% to 1.72 million tons. AMS attributes these results to a decline in both inbound and outbound cargo, with inbound cargo falling 4.7% yoy, while outbound cargo was down 2.1% yoy in December.
Budapest Airport (BUD): cargo turnover in December increased by 4.5% to 11,775 tons. Volumes at the airport grew by 14.9% year-on-year, compared to the same period in 2017, eventually reaching 146,113 tons of cargo. Budapest attributed this growth to an increase in the number of flights made by wide-body cargo aircraft of large capacity and payload to the airport, as well as the construction of a new CargoCity cargo handling center.
Frankfurt Airport (FRA)reported a 1.9% year-on-year increase in cargo turnover to 184,000 tonnes. For the full year, FRA’s cargo turnover fell by 0.7% to 2.21 million tons.
Liège Airport (LGG) reported volumes up 21.5% for the full year, to 870,644 tons, compared to the same period in 2017.
London Heathrow Airport (LHR) reported a 7.9% year-over-year decline in December throughput to 132,000 tons, making December 2018 the busiest month at the airport since February 2017 of the year. Cargo volumes at the airport decreased by 0.8% for the full year compared to the same period in 2017.Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO): since the beginning of the year, cargo turnover has grown by 5.5% to 335,000 tons of cargo. They attributed this growth to a 25% increase in international flights to SVO, specifically from Tokyo (NRT), Chongqing (CKG), Zhengzhou (CGO) and Seoul (ICN), which led to a 7.5% increase in imports compared to a year earlier . The volume of cargo transshipment remained the same. In 2018, SVO posted the largest increase in outbound and transit freight traffic on routes to Liege (LGG), Leipzig (LEJ), Chengdu (CTU) and Taiwan (TPE).
Cargo Vienna Airport (VIE), including freight, fell 4.1% year-on-year in December to 23,484 tonnes. For the full year, VIE’s throughput increased by 4.4% to 215,921 tons.
North America and South America
Anchorage International Airport (ANC) cargo handling fell 2.4% y/y to 239,583 tonnes in December. From November to December, volumes decreased by 5.7%. Overall for 2018, ICN’s throughput grew by 2.5% YoY to around 2.79 million tonnes.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (CVG) : Freight volumes increased 19.6% YoY in 2018 to reach 1.2 Mtpa YoY.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) released preliminary data, noting that cargo capacity rose 2.4% to 218,151 tons in December. Volumes at the airport are forecast to rise by 2.7% for the full year to 2.45 million tons compared to the same period in 2017.
Ontario International Airport (ONT) handled about 75,000 tons of cargo, resulting in a 5.0% increase in cargo traffic in December compared to the previous year. Overall, in 2018, ONT’s cargo turnover increased by 14.8% year on year to 750,000 tons.
Rickenbacker International Airport (LCK)reported that volumes were up 17.6% for the full year, bringing the airport’s total 2018 cargo handling to almost 136,500 tons.