Frankfurt Airport (FRA) said its cargo volumes last year were the "highest annual volume ever" recorded in its history.

In a statement, it said that cargo traffic, in contrast to passenger volumes, saw very positive growth in 2021.

Cargo throughput at the airport, comprising airfreight and airmail, increased significantly by 18.7% year-on-year to about 2.32 million metric tons – the highest annual volume ever achieved in the history of Frankfurt Airport, which is also up 8.9% compared to levels seen in 2019 before Covid-19 hit.

FRA’s aircraft movements in 2021 climbed by 23.4% year-on-year to 261,927 takeoffs and landings (2019 comparison: down 49%. 

"Airfreight volumes in Frankfurt reached a new annual record, despite the ongoing shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights and other challenges. This underscores our role as one of Europe’s leading cargo hubs," said Fraport AG’s CEO, Dr. Stefan Schulte.

"A breakdown by the two cargo subcategories reveals that airfreight was the main driver behind this growth, while airmail continued to be affected by the lack of belly capacity on passenger aircraft," Schulte added.

FRA said cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) grew by 6.2% year-on-year to around 197,100 metric tons in December 2021 – thus reaching its highest monthly volume since December 2007, which was up 15.7% compared to December 2019.

Meanwhile, FRA said it welcomed some 24.8 million passengers in 2021 – a 32.2% increase compared to 2020 when global passenger numbers plummeted amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

After the third lockdown in May 2021, the easing of travel restrictions led to a noticeable recovery in demand for air travel but recovery slowed towards the end of 2021, due to the emergence of the new virus variant with passenger volume for 2021 still down 64.8% compared to 2019.

"Throughout 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to have a massive impact on Frankfurt Airport. Passenger traffic recovered gradually in the course of the year – even rising threefold in the April-to-December 2021 period compared to 2020. But we are still far away from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019," Schulte said.

2022 to remain "highly volatile"

"The situation for our business will remain highly volatile and dynamic in 2022. At this stage, no one can reliably predict how the pandemic will evolve over the coming months,"  Schulte said.

"The related – and often inconsistent – travel restrictions will continue to put a heavy strain on the aviation industry. Despite these uncertainties, we are taking an optimistic view of the year ahead. We are expecting air travel demand to rebound noticeably again in the spring."