Air freight volumes at Frankfurt Airport continued to recover in March despite persisting challenges to global supply chains, particularly near Europe.

Fraport, which operates Frankfurt Airport, said Frankfurt's cargo volumes — comprising airfreight and airmail — continued their positive trend, rising by 6.3% year-on-year to 178,898 metric tons.

Aircraft movements for the period also climbed by 5.7% year-on-year to 33,969 takeoffs and landings.

Likewise, Fraport said accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) at Frankfurt Airport grew by 5.8% year-on-year to around 2.2 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.