Frankfurt-Hahn's 2012 freight falls 28pc, loses another cargo carrier

FRANKFURT-HAHN Airport in Germany is facing the prospect of further freight volume declines after losing Abu Dhabi's Etihad Cargo to neighbouring Frankfurt Main.

The hit was intensified by 2012 results showing that cargo traffic dropped by 28 per cent to 207,520 tonnes. Airport authorities blamed the decrease largely on the general economic situation and the fact that 2011 had been a record year for freight volumes.

Etihad Cargo's departure, which an airport spokesman refused to comment on, comes hot on the heels of the loss of myCARGO (a Turkish-Chinese operator), which was one of four carriers that started operations at the airport last August.

The remaining three carriers are: Yangtze River Express with its five-times weekly service from Hahn to Beijing; Navitrans linking New York, Hahn and Chengdu on a weekly basis; and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) which flies twice-weekly between Hahn and Tokyo, having switched its overnight flights from Frankfurt Main. The carriers contribute between 5,000 and 8,000 tonnes of cargo a month.

Lloyd's Loading List said Etihad Cargo transferred its programme of four weekly freighter flights to Frankfurt Main, a move confirmed by the Gulf carrier's general sales agent in Germany, ATC Aviation Services, it reported.

"We don't know the reasons for the switch. The decision has come from Etihad Cargo's HQ in Abu Dhabi," an official at ATC said.

"It's more or less the same schedule as in Hahn, with some minor modification to take into account the night flight ban at Frankfurt Main," he added.

Three of Etihad's Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi freighter flights are operated by A330Fs and the other by an MD-11F. Etihad Airways also operates twice-daily passenger flights between Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi and daily flights from Munich and Dusseldorf to the UAE capital.