Air freight volumes at Frankfurt Airport continued its recovery trajectory in April despite persisting challenges to the global economy and supply chains.

Fraport, which operates Frankfurt Airport, said Frankfurt's cargo volumes—comprising airfreight and airmail—recorded strong year-on-year growth as they rose by 10.7% to 171,501 metric tons in April 2024.

This is, however, slightly lower than the 178,898 metric tons handled in March.

For the period, aircraft movements also climbed by 5.8% year-on-year to 37,556 takeoffs and landings.

Meanwhile, accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) expanded by 5.3% year-on-year to around 2.3 million metric tons.

[Source: Fraport] 

Earlier in March, Frankport reported that air cargo volumes at the airport declined for the whole of 2023 as challenges to the air cargo sector continued to restrict trade movement. For 2023, volumes dropped by 3.9% year-on-year to around 1.9 million metric tons for the fiscal year 2023.

"Causes included general market-based factors, such as restrictions in European airspace and weak economic growth resulting from the global geopolitical situation," Fraport said then. Nonetheless, the airport operator said Frankfurt remained as Europe's busiest air cargo hub last year.

For the current fiscal year 2024, Fraport expects group EBITDA to be between roughly €1,260 million and €1,360 million. For the Group result, the figure is expected to be between approximately €435 million and €530 million.