ACW - Air Cargo Week
01/23/2012
German airports: reasons for optimism
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A Number of German air gateways have reported favourably on their freight throughput during 2011.Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding saw cargo volumes at its Leipzig/Halle International airport rise, while Bavaria's biggest air freight gateway at Munich enjoyed increased demand from its cargo-carrying customers.
Leipzig/Halle handled 760,344 tonnes of freight over the course of 2011, an increase of 14.7 percent on 2010 figures.
Mitteldeutsche Flughafen CEO Markus Kopp commented: "Having set a new record high for handling freight, Leipzig/Halle airport also demonstrated in an impressive manner that is one of the leading freight handling centres in Germany and Europe."
Munich processed a new record annual figure of 286,000 tonnes of freight. This volume was supplemented by over 17,000 tonnes of air mail, bringing to 303,655 tonnes its total cargo throughput - 5.9 percent more than was handled during 2010.
With passenger traffic also up significantly year-on-year, many of the airlines operating through Munich either increased their service frequencies or switched to using larger aircraft.
Michael Kerkloh, president and CEO of Munich airport, noted: "Without the steadily worsening bottlenecks in our runway system, we would have achieved even stronger gains. During the peak periods, we have no more available slots for take-offs and landings, so that many connections requested by airlines cannot be implemented."
Germany's busiest freight gateway, Frankfurt-Main International airport, had a more challenging year. Air cargo throughput declined to 2.17 million tonnes. Although this was down by 2.8 percent on 2010, the previous year had been a bumper on for air freight operations through Frankfurt.
However, the 2011 traffic figure was also still above pre-crisis 2007 levels, airport operator Fraport noted.
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