Full circle in Covid-19
Europe’s air cargo hubs reached an all-time high last year.
The viral attack didn’t impact airfreight activities at Europe’s airports for long. The trade association ACI Europe has remarked that continental freight volumes from Q1 / 2021 onwards not only came in higher than in the corresponding quarters of last year, but also vis-à-vis 2019. All in all, 21.8% more goods were handled than in 2020 and 7.7% more than in 2019. The recovery isn’t complete yet, however.
The first signs of Covid-19 in Europe appeared two years ago. They didn’t have an immediate impact on the continent’s airports, however (see also page 10 of ITJ 11-12 / 2020). Later on the effects of measures to combat the outbreak of Covid-19 had a big influence on aviation and thus on air cargo activities. The rankings of the leading European air cargo hubs was subject to the some change.
In 2021 the top 20 all gained vis-à-vis 2020, and every hub – except for LHR, MAD, CPH, ZRH – also handled more goods than in 2019. The figures for England’s airports – which have to take the impact of Brexit into account too, of course, – saw LHR continue to decline and EMA regional airport fortified.
Eight millionaires – not one in the East
Europe now has eight freight millionaires, if Turkish Cargo’s Istanbul double-hub is counted as one. CGN is likely to become the ninth in the course of this year. There’s a big blank area on the map, however; it covers a corridor stretching from Sweden and Finland right across Eastern Europe and eastern Central Europe all the way to the Balkans and south to the Mediterranean Sea.
Helsinki (151,621 t) has dropped out of the top 20, Budapest (124,450 t) hasn’t entered said group yet, and hubs such as Vienna (170,455 t) and Rome FCO (94,956 t) didn’t manage to recover from the reduction in long-haul passenger flights. Munich (166,722 t) drew attention with its new full-freighter operations. It remains to be seen what the post-pandemic future holds.