ACI: European freight volumes flat with no improvement expected

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Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport


Airfreight volumes in Europe have been flat so far in 2015 and are unlikely to see any noticeable improvement this year, according to Airports Council International (ACI) Europe.

In September, freight volumes increased by 0.2 per cent compared to the same month last year. For the first nine months of 2015, freight is also up by 0.2 per cent on the same period of last year, though three per cent above 2013.

ACI Europe director general, Olivier Jankovec says domestic consumption improving, particularly in Eurozone economies, but exports remain weak. He says: “Domestic consumption is now the main driver for economic growth in Europe, on the back of continued low oil prices … However, shrinking exports remains a risk due to the weakness of emerging economies – meaning freight traffic is unlikely to improve from what has been a flat year so far.”

The largest freight airports in Europe have seen mixed results in September. Frankfurt Airport in Germany saw volumes fall by 5.2 per cent to 160,238 tonnes while France’s Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport improved by 13.6 per cent to 159,200 tonnes, though ACI says the figures were skewed by the two week Air France pilot strike of September 2014. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has seen a 1.1 per cent increase to 137,636 tonnes while the UK’s Heathrow Airport has seen volumes fall by 4.4 per cent to 119,091 tonnes.

ACI says French airports saw noticeable improvements compared to last September, making up for the Air France pilot strike. Paris Orly Airport saw an improvement of 16.8 per cent to 9,110 tonnes, Toulouse Airport was up by 13.8 per cent to 5,977 tonnes while Marseille Airport increased by 6.1 per cent to 4,833 tonnes. Nice Airport did not see an increase, it declined by 6.5 per cent to 1,273 tonnes.

For the first nine months of 2015, Frankfurt has seen a decline of 2.9 per cent to 1.4 million tonnes while Charles de Gaulle fell by 2.8 per cent to 1.3 million tonnes. Schiphol was down by 1.4 per cent to just under 1.2 million tonnes and Heathrow saw a slight increase of 0.2 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes.