Cargo volumes at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) continued to post declines in April as global economic activities continued to cool.

Europe's busiest cargo airport said air freight throughput —  comprising airfreight and airmail — in Frankfurt posted a decline of 8.5% year-on-year to 154,926 metric tons in April 2023.

Month-on-month, this is also slower than the 168,335 tonnes recorded in March, but better than the 146,620 tonnes seen in February 2023.

"Reflecting the overall economic slowdown, FRA's cargo throughput (comprising airfreight and airmail) continued to decline ... in April 2023," FRA said of the slowdown in cargo traffic last month.

In contrast, it noted that aircraft movements rose by 9.8% year-on-year to 35,503 takeoffs and landings.

Accumulated maximum takeoff weights or MTOWs climbed by 9.4% year-on-year to about 2.2 million metric tons.

 Source: Frankfurt Airport

As cargo volumes continued to decline, Fraport said passenger volumes at FRA continued to recover from the pandemic slump as it welcomed some 4.8 million passengers in April 2023, representing a 21.5% increase year-on-year.

Compared to pre-crisis April 2019, FRA's passenger traffic was, however, still down by 20.0% in the reporting month.