Frankfurt cargo volumes impacted by Middle East conflict and strikes

Frankfurt cargo volumes impacted by Middle East conflict and strikes Europe’s largest cargo hub saw cargo volumes increase by 1% in the first half of the year as the Middle East conflict and strikes at Lufthansa affected performance. The German airport saw volumes reach 1m tonnes over the first six months of the year, but several trends had a negative impact of performance. Airport operator Fraport firstly highlighted a 12.4% year-on-year fall in airmail volumes during the first half to 15,000 tonnes as a structural shift towards digital documents and communication continued to impact volumes. Fraport said that overall volumes stangnated during the second quarter as a result of the Iran conflict and strike action. “Particular contributors included the six-day Lufthansa strike in April and the grounding of Lufthansa’s A321P2F fleet,” Fraport said. “Since the beginning of the Iran war in March, significant capacity reductions in Middle East traffic have impacted the development of the airfreight market. “Closures or heavy restrictions of key airspaces led to a significant decline in available capacities on routes with the Middle East, forcing market participants to make extensive changes to their networks. “As a consequence, freight flows were increasingly shifted to direct routes between Europe, the Far East, and Africa. At the same time, airfreight rates in the second quarter rose significantly due to limited capacity.” E-commerce volumes continued to be a “major growth driver” in the first half, although Fraport said “some of its dynamism was lost” due to regulatory changes in locations such as the European Union (EU), which has introduced a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels imported from outside the bloc. Looking at regional performance, Fraport said that volumes from the Far East were up 7% year on year, having benefitted from e-commerce volumes and the shift of cargo flows away from the Middle East due to the conflict in the region. “The trend for China traffic was weaker in the second quarter; other major airfreight markets performed significantly more positively,” Fraport said. “India, Japan, and Taiwan recorded strong growth, which was mainly attributable to additional freighter capacities. “The Taiwan route also benefited from strong export demand from high-tech products. The impact of capacity constraints in Middle East traffic is reflected in the figures for both Far East and Africa traffic.” Volumes from the Middle East declined by 19.8%; Africa traffic increased by 11% as demand for direct connections between Europe and Africa rose significantly, as freight flows were increasingly diverted to avoid hubs in the Middle East. US traffic saw “only a modest increase” of 1.2% despite positive US economic trends. Latin America recorded an increase of 1% due to growth from Mexico of 4%, which benefited from the positive development of airfreight trade between Germany and Mexico. By contrast, European traffic fell by 6.9%, with the impact of the grounding of the A321P2F fleet especially affecting performance.