Top 50 Cargo Airports: 2020 challenges reveal air cargo’s bright future

Trade tensions, staffing shortages, congested seaports and capacity constraints due to a global pandemic are just a few of the disruptions that plagued the airfreight industry for the past year and a half. However, the challenges caused by the onset of COVID-19 also revealed new opportunities for air cargo, illuminating the resilience of the industry and the importance of freight as it played a vital role in the global distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) and life-saving vaccines. Airports adapted to the temporary surges in cargo volumes related to PPE or vaccine transport in innovative ways. During the height of PPE material demand, when handlers operated at near capacity, Liege Airport (LGG) in Belgium opened a temporary cargo handling facility April 11 for PPE charters, Steven Verhasselt, vice president of commercial at LGG, told Air Cargo World . The temporary facility, located in an unoccupied building designated for AirBridgeCargo’s new European hub, was operated by Paris-based handler Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) until May 31. Air Cargo World compiles an annual ranking of the world’s Top 50 Cargo Airports from the latest Annual World Airport Traffic Report (WATR) released by Airports Council International (ACI). This year, despite the temporary increases in cargo volumes, there was an overall 10% year-over-year drop in total cargo tonnage handled globally, according to the WATR. However, the boom in e-commerce activity, surge in cargo charters and the switch from maritime transport to air drove some major cargo airports to shine. They climbed the rankings while also introducing new infrastructure innovations, projects and hope for the future of air cargo amid an especially tough year. While many airports have held spots on the list of Top 50 Cargo Airports, 2020 welcomed few new entrants, including Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO), which ranked No. 38 after seeing a 22% YoY increase in total cargo tonnage. Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Vietnam, Sydney International Airport (SYD) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) also secured spots on the list. Although nearly every region posted tonnage declines, airports based in North America did exceptionally well in terms of domestic cargo, which increased nearly 6% YoY to roughly 22.3 million tonnes. As e-commerce shipments skyrocket and the traditional peak season turns into a continual upward trajectory, it is interesting to take notice of which airports have adapted to accommodate market changes and thrive amid this season of adversity. MEM takes the throne E-commerce and medical shipments — specifically vaccines — kept volumes elevated at FedEx’s hub at Memphis International Airport (MEM), which saw 7% YoY increase in cargo volumes in 2020 to 4.6 million tonnes, taking the top spot in the 2020 ranking. With the increase, MEM dethroned Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), which had held the No. 1 spot since at least 2014. Although airports “really took a financial hit with the loss of revenue during the pandemic … having a cargo carrier like FedEx [mitigated] a lot of that,” Glen Thomas, director of strategic marketing and communications at MEM, told Air Cargo World . In total, eight of the top-10 cargo airports saw total cargo throughput slightly improve in 2020. These include Ted Stevens (ANC), a popular transit point for trans-Pacific freight operations, which increased 15% YoY to climb two spots in the ranking to No. 4, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), which saw a 7% YoY improvement in throughput, pushing the airport up six places to No. 8. While U.S. airports generally saw improvements in cargo operations, airports in the Asia-Pacific and East Asia region reported declines in cargo throughput. Tokyo International Airport (HND) declined 35% and dropped nine spots to No. 31 in the ranking while Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK), No. 28, saw a 23% decline in cargo throughput in 2020. The drop in cargo operations at Asian airports is primarily driven by the importance of belly capacity to some airports and lack of passenger operations due to more stringent travel restrictions, according to Frederic Horst, managing director of Air Cargo World affiliate Cargo Facts Consulting. Despite 2020 being a tumultuous year, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Aside from prompting an industrywide digitalization push, the pandemic emphasized the importance of cargo as a vital tool to sustain economic activity. In turn, a look at the ACI’s latest data so far shows that operations at major express hubs in the U.S. thrived off e-commerce operations while other airports suffered losses due to lack of passenger capacity. As the pandemic continues and these cargo trends persist, 2020 results from the world’s top cargo airports just might provide a glimpse into the bright future of freight. AMERICAS Of the 15 ranking airports in North America, most are express hubs or gateways; the exception is PHL, a newcomer to the list. Major gateways like LAX and O’Hare (ORD), which ranked No. 8 and No. 12, respectively, saw growth, as did express hubs like MEM, Louisville (SDF) and Ontario (ONT), ranked No. 5 and 29, respectively. Meanwhile, airports historically dependent on belly capacity from passenger flights like Newark (EWR), Atlanta (ATL), John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Dallas (DFW), ranked No. 37, No. 42, No. 25 and No. 34, respectively, saw drops in cargo volumes. Express hubs MEM and SDF did exceptionally well due to the 2020 boom in e-commerce activity that continued into 2021. Year to date, cargo throughput at MEM improved by 7% to 4.6 million tonnes while SDF is up 6% to 2.9 million tonnes. Although existing infrastructure at MEM was able to handle the increase in cargo throughput, the airport continues to invest in airfreight operations and is in the process of building a consolidated de-icing facility that will help boost winter operations for FedEx, MEM’s Thomas said. ONT, with a 18% YoY increase at 815,000 tonnes of cargo, was the fastest-growing ranked airport in North America. While UPS makes up a majority of cargo operations at ONT, Amazon-related traffic carried by Air Transport Services Group affiliate operators saw significant YoY increases of up to 64%, Steve Lambert, public information officer at ONT, told Air Cargo World . Meanwhile, UPS saw a more moderate YoY increase of 6%, while FedEx reported a 26% improvement in cargo throughput at ONT. “We [benefited] from the fact that our highway and rail infrastructure around the airport, and throughout the region, is capable of handling the increase we’ve seen, so certainly with the demand for e-commerce, we were just in a perfection position —it was a perfect storm for us,” Lambert said. “Another factor [is that] UPS, in particular, was heavily involved in the movement of medical supplies during those early months of the pandemic, and so in April of 2020, UPS had hundreds of flights for FEMA’s Project Airbridge [which] drove up some of those early numbers.” In the last year, FedEx tripled its size at ONT with its new 251,000-square-foot Operation Center, and while the investment did not necessarily impact 2020 numbers as it opened later in the year, Lambert noted that the building is an example of ONT’s focus on improvements to continue to bolster cargo operations. Meanwhile, new entrant PHL ranked No. 46 with a 3% YoY increase, and is another example of a U.S. airport enhancing its cargo operations. Historically, PHL captured roughly 9% of a yearly $53 billion air cargo market in the airport’s catchment area despite its significant FedEx and UPS presence, Stephanie Wear, director of air service development and cargo services at PHL, told Air Cargo World earlier this year. PHL handled approximately 570,000 tonnes of cargo in 2020, and although the airport’s cargo growth has developed organically in recent years, the pandemic accelerated the recent expansion project at the airport , Wear added. ASIA-PACIFIC Airports based in the Asia-Pacific region saw YoY drops in 2020 throughput, despite the boost in cargo activity from PPE transport. In addition to HKG’s 7% YoY decrease in cargo volume to roughly 4.5 million tonnes of cargo, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) and Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) saw drops as well, ranking No. 15 and No. 22, respectively. While CAN saw an 8% YoY decrease, PEK saw a more drastic drop of 38% due to the delayed return of passenger operations. Volumes at PEK declined “because it is more passenger focused than other airports — the big freighter destinations are PVG, CAN and HKG,” Cargo Facts Consulting’s Horst said. In turn, the drops emphasize the importance of belly capacity for specific airports. Meanwhile, 2020 cargo tonnage at CGO increased 22% YoY. There have been recent efforts to turn CGO into a global hub as well as establish aviation links and freight flows between Hungary and China. In particular, CGO has received attention from carriers such as Zhongyuan Longhao Airlines, which launched weekly cargo routes in late 2019 . Cargo activity at the airport is likely to continue to grow with increased international flights. Despite drops in cargo tonnage and other challenges, airports in the region, including Changi International Airport (SIN) which ranked No. 17, have continued to look forward and identify ways to continue improving cargo operations in innovative ways. “In a post-COVID-19 world, there will be stronger pressure on air cargo communities to accelerate the industry’s digitalization efforts and to share data to enhance supply chain visibility and efficiency,” Lim Ching Kiat, managing director of air hub development at Changi Airport Group, told Air Cargo World . In 2020, the Changi Airport Group introduced community data-sharing platform Changi Air Cargo Community System (ACCS), which is an ecosystem of community-based applications that helps streamline information sharing to optimize operational efficiencies, like truck wait times, and digitalize the air cargo supply chain. Unfortunately, various COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia have hindered opportunities to redevelop passenger operations to recover from the lack of capacity. However, demand remains high as the peak for some trans-Pacific carriers has already hit , Fred Ruggiero, vice president of cargo Americas at Cathay Pacific, told Air Cargo World . Although the peak typically hits around mid-September, Hong Kong-based combination carrier Cathay Pacific has operated a peak schedule since August. EMEA When demand shifted to freighters, operators responded by increasing frequencies at freighter-focused hubs and gateways like Luxembourg-Findel (LUX), which climbed six spots to No. 27, and Koln-Bonn (CGN), which moved up five spots to No. 30. In turn, freighter hubs were able to accommodate charter operations at peak levels, LGG’s Verhasselt said. Meanwhile, airports historically dependent on passenger traffic saw mild to moderate declines in cargo tonnage, including Heathrow (LHR), Amsterdam (AMS) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), which saw YoY declines of 28%, 9% and 17%, respectively, pushing the airports further down the list. LGG, which climbed seven spots to No. 24, saw one of the larger YoY cargo volume increases of 24%, stemming from demand for PPE materials and charters. Specifically looking at verticals, LGG had strong growth in general cargo, e-commerce and express parcels, and health and humanitarian shipments, while animal and outsized project charters decreased, Verhasselt said. LGG is on pace to grow faster this year than in 2020. To meet the ever-increasing requirements from logistics providers and customers, the airport is focused on investing in both physical and digital infrastructure with the goal of evolving into a multimodal logistics hub, Verhasselt said. “The new reality is smaller shipments with a multitude of finals destinations that require more space to deconsolidate than the big shipments of the past,” Verhasselt said. “In Liege, we are investing in the second line [and] land side warehouses to adapt to these changes. Digital infrastructure is needed in order to make sure a more complex operation can move seamlessly [as] track and trace [features are] no longer the domain of express only, it is becoming a standard, minimum requirement.” By 2040, LGG hopes to add 400 hectares, or more than 980 acres, creating substantial room for growth, he added. By the end of this year, LGG plans to add two first-line warehouses, one of which will be handled by Alibaba, with more to come in 2022. Meanwhile, the Middle Eastern hubs of Dubai International Airport (DXB), ranked No. 13, and Hamad International Airport (DOH), ranked No. 9, both saw drops of 23% and 2%, respectively, in 2020 cargo tonnage compared with 2019. Emirates SkyCargo — one of the major airlines with cargo operations at the hubs — reported that the lack of available bellyhold capacity caused cargo tonnage to decrease by 22%, according to Emirate Group’s latest annual earnings report . In turn, the significant decrease in Emirates’ transported tonnage most likely contributed to the drop in cargo activity at both hubs. The remainder of 2021 is still uncertain as cargo airports continue to navigate stormy skies. However, with cargo-focused airports like LGG and MEM pushing innovation and digitalization in their operations, the unwavering strength of e-commerce and pharma shipments, the establishing of new cargo hubs, and even the introduction of smaller, regional airports tapping into cargo potential for the first time, cargo airports continue to prove their resilience in the face of a global pandemic regardless of any drops in cargo throughput. In turn, industry stakeholders began to take a deeper look at the power of cargo. “It’s understandable that cargo was always a step behind the passenger terminal needs … But now airports are finally making the move [toward cargo], and so we have definitely seen an uptick in activity around cargo developments, whether it’s RFPs for actual developments or just discussions with airports about demand,” David Rose, managing director at supply chain real estate developer Realterm, told Air Cargo World . “The demand was certainly there, the capacity just wasn’t, so we really saw airports, finally, take a deeper look into the importance of cargo as a diversified revenue.” From innovative handling popups to new cargo developments to better handle the ongoing influx of shipments, the airfreight industry has plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Although turbulent skies may continue, the future of freight looks bright. View the complete ranking of Top 50 Cargo Airports based on 2020 throughput.

Top 50 Cargo Airports: 2020 challenges reveal air cargo’s bright future

Listen: New entrants crowd 777 conversion arena

Qatar Airways Cargo highlights digitalization as ‘key pillar’ for strategy in annual report

Qatar Airways Cargo highlights digitalization as ‘key pillar’ for strategy in annual report

Cargo Facts Free Newsletters

Cargo Facts Connect Podcast

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password