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Frankfurt air freight slides 2.5pc in June, leaving first half down 2.1pc

EUROPE's leading air freight hub at Frankfurt airport reported June volumes down 2.5 per cent year on year to 174,000 tonnes, leaving first half throughput off 2.1 per cent at 1.02 million tonnes.

Top customer Lufthansa Cargo's volume was almost flat after falling 0.8 per cent in June to 136,000 tonnes, but was 0.5 per cent higher in the first six months of the year compared with 2014 at 811,000 tonnes, reported the Journal of Commerce.

Frankfurt's cargo sector has seen several key developments this year that could close the narrow gap over its closest rival, Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, notably Lufthansa Cargo's announcement in April that it was delaying construction of a new state-of-the art air freight centre "by at least two years" in a move designed to buttress the financial position of parent group, Lufthansa.

In July, Fraport AG, the airport's owner and operator, sold a 51 per cent stake in its Fraport Cargo Services unit to Worldwide Flight Services for an undisclosed sum.

Frankfurt's negative performance contrasts with freight volume at European airports rising 0.5 per cent in the first six months of the year, after growing three per cent in June, the highest gain so far this year, according to the Airports Council International.

However, the outlook for the rest of 2015 is far from promising. "For freight, the situation in Russia as well as slower growth in emerging markets is likely to keep constraining traffic performance," said ACI Europe director-general Oliver Jankovec.

European airlines reported flat cargo growth in June, while capacity increased 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, yet volume was down 0.6 per cent in the first half, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"Improvements in Eurozone business confidence have not led to increased air freight demand, and consumer confidence has been hit by the Greek crisis," IATA said.