Freight traffic growth at Frankfurt Airport is slowing, according to the airport’s semi-annual report.
Frankfurt Airport’s (FRA) semi-annual report notes a 2.8% decline in cargo operations in June (compared to the same period last year). If you look at the overall growth in freight traffic in the first half of 2018, it increased by 0.1% compared to the previous year, but these numbers look insignificant compared to the steady growth that market players are used to seeing in previous periods, the pace of which expressed in two digits.
The period of stagnation is a symptom of the current state of the industry. The FRA hub’s most significant air cargo player, Lufthansa, reported a slowdown in growth in the first half of 2018 and a decrease in traffic in June. The UK’s largest hub, London Heathrow Airport (LHR), showed the same pattern.
Industry leaders to some extent attribute the slowdown to tensions between countries due to their protectionist policies, in particular the recently introduced new tariffs of the Trump era and the upcoming impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union.
The 5.1% increase in cargo traffic at German airports by the end of 2018, predicted by the Association of German Airports (ADV), no longer looks likely, given the performance of the country’s most important transport hub.
Frankfurt am Main Airport is the largest airport in Germany, located in Frankfurt. In terms of cargo transportation, it ranks first in Europe (2,076,734 tons in 2015). The airport is a hub for AeroLogic, Condor, Lufthansa, Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa Cargo.