Frankfurt Airport (FRA) said its cargo volumes reached a new high for April last month despite belly capacity shortage as passenger flights remain mostly grounded.

FRA said its cargo throughput (airfreight and airmail tonnage) continued its growth momentum during April 2021.

The Frankfurt global hub even achieved a new April cargo record, with traffic soaring by 42.7% year-on-year to 201,661 metric tons (up 13.1% on April 2019).

"This robust growth was achieved despite the ongoing shortage of belly capacity normally provided by passenger aircraft. With 15,486 takeoffs and landings, aircraft movements rose by 137.8% compared to April 2020," FRA added, noting that accumulated maximum takeoff weights grew by 78.8% year-on-year to nearly 1.2 million metric tons.

Meanwhile, the airport saw its passenger figures continued to be severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2021, when Germany’s largest aviation gateway served a total of 983,839 passengers — representing a 423.1% increase year-on-year.

However, this figure is based on a low benchmark value recorded in April 2020, when traffic largely came to a standstill amid the rapidly spreading pandemic, the gateway added.

"Compared to the pre-pandemic traffic figures in April 2019, FRA registered an 83.7% decrease in passenger traffic for the reporting month," it added.

Growth in other airports seen 

"All of Fraport’s Group airports worldwide recorded high growth rates in April 2021 – for the first time again since the onset of the coronavirus crisis. At some airports, passenger numbers increased by several hundred percent, albeit on the basis of strongly reduced air traffic in April 2020," the gateway said in a statement.

However, it noted that the airports in Fraport’s international portfolio continued to experience noticeable traffic declines when compared to pre-pandemic April 2019.

Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia served 8,751 passengers in April 2021. Combined traffic at the Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) rose to 291,990 passengers, while Peru’s Lima Airport (LIM) recorded 544,152 passengers in the reporting month.

At the 14 Greek regional airports, traffic increased to 162,462 passengers in April 2021. The Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast registered 26,993 passengers overall.

Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Riviera saw traffic rise to 598,187 passengers. In Russia, St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport welcomed some 1.2 million passengers, while more than 3.7 million passengers traveled through Xi’an Airport (XIY) in China during April 2021.