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FRANKFURT CONTINUES TO RECORD CARGO GROWTH IN MARCH
April 14, 2025
Frankfurt Airport (FRA) continued to experience cargo volume growth in March, despite rising trade tensions.
Fraport, which operates Frankfurt Airport, said Frankfurt's cargo throughput, comprising airfreight and airmail, rose by 3.2% year-on-year to 184,679 metric tons in March 2025.
Month-on-month, March's performance is also significantly higher than the 152,069 metric tonnes recorded in February.
This is also higher compared to the 148,321 metric tonnes recorded by the airport in January.
For the period, aircraft movements climbed by 3.9% year-on-year to 35,280 takeoffs and landings.
Likewise, accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) increased by 4.2% to around 2.2 million metric tons.
Fraport noted that the performance comes even as the airport was impacted by a full-day strike on March 10, which led to an almost complete halt in flight operations and disrupted the travel plans of about 140,000 passengers.
The reference month of March 2024 was also impacted by strikes, affecting as many as 300,000 passengers. Although the effect in March 2024 was mitigated by the earlier timing of the Easter holidays compared with this year.
In terms of passenger volumes, Frankfurt said traffic increased slightly by 0.3% compared to the same month last year.
Fraport CEO Dr. Stefan Schulte said traffic in Frankfurt has stagnated in the first quarter of the year "primarily due to the currently extremely high regulatory costs in Germany, which are hampering our competitiveness in the global market."
"The new German government is setting the right course by reducing the air traffic tax and eliminating the national blending quota for synthetic aviation fuels that are not yet available on the market. These measures can help to unlock dynamic growth in aviation again over the medium term," Schulte said, adding that for the upcoming summer season, seat capacity at Germany's largest aviation gateway in Frankfurt is expected to increase by five percent.
At the end of 2024, Frankfurt Airport's cargo throughput grew by 6.2% year-on-year to 2.1 million metric tons in 2024.
