Frankfurt Airport (FRA)concluded 2024 with a notable growth in cargo compared to the previous year, although still slightly lower than levels seen pre-pandemic in 2019.

Fraport, which operates Frankfurt Airport, said Frankfurt's cargo throughput, comprising airfreight and airmail, grew by 6.2% year-on-year to 2.1 million metric tons in 2024.

The number of aircraft movements climbed by 2.4% to 440,853 takeoffs and landings. Likewise, total maximum takeoff weights (or MTOWs) increased by 2.8% to approximately 27.8 million metric tons.

 [Source: Fraport]

For December, Cargo throughput also edged down by 1.2% to 169,135 metric tons. This is lower than the 178,355 metric tons recorded in November, and the 179,809 metric tons recorded in October.

For the month, aircraft movement decreased slightly by 0.7% to 33,304 takeoffs and landings, while MTOWs remained almost level at about 2.2 million metric tons, down 0.1%.

Fraport said there has been strong demand for medium-haul flights to Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. In the long-haul market, North American routes remained popular, while flights to the Far East and South America also showed dynamic growth.

Frankfurt — Germany's largest airport — noted that a total of 99 airlines offered flights from FRA to 311 destinations in 98 countries overall in 2024. 

Meanwhile, while Frankfurt remains top for hub connectivity, Fraport CEO Dr Stefan Schulte emphasized the economic importance of air traffic as he warned that the hub is at risk of losing its advantage of excellent hub connectivity due to high government-imposed fees.

"With its large number of flight connections, Frankfurt Airport provides a positive and important locational advantage for the German economy,” said Schulte.

"However, due to the sharp rise in government-induced location costs, presently reaching extremely high levels, we are increasingly at risk of losing this advantage of excellent hub connectivity for our country's economy."

"Airlines are investing in locations with lower government-imposed fees, and we are feeling this effect here in Frankfurt," he added, noting that Fraport's airports outside Germany are "faring much better," with most of them growing faster than Frankfurt and many of them even setting new records.