Top 50 Cargo Airports: Which air hubs rose or fell?

Moving eastward

Meanwhile, the center of the air cargo world continues to shift to the east. The top contributor to global air cargo volume growth last year was – no surprise – China, which saw a 986,000-tonne spike in cargo volumes at its airports, representing 23.5 percent of the global increase, year-over-year, ACI found. Chinese airports also reported a 27.6 percent, y-o-y, rise in total aircraft movements.

According to ACI, 19 high-growth emerging markets, mostly in Asia, represented 33.9 percent of global air cargo volume in 2016. “Countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam have achieved double-digit growth on an annualized basis since 2006 and are poised to grow even more in the future,” the WATR concluded. Similarly, countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey, home to global hubs, have experienced explosive growth in the last decade.

The West also has been a significant contributor to the rise in global airfreight volume. One of the bigger surprises in 2016 was the rebound of cargo markets in Europe, which had a 5 percent increase in total cargo growth to more than 20 million tonnes in 2016 after several years of stiff competition from Gulf-area carriers.

Europe’s largest air cargo hubs, Germany, France and the U.K., saw air cargo volumes grow 3.4 percent, 1.8 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. Spain, Luxembourg, the Russian Federation and Italy grew 10.9 percent, 8.7 percent, 9.6 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. Turkey achieved one of the greatest gains at 14.7 percent, year-over-year, and expects to see more growth in the near future once its Istanbul New Airport opens next year, with a planned annual capacity of 5.5 million tonnes of freight.

Across the Atlantic, the North American economy experienced a rebound in economic activity in the second half of 2016 after a slow first half, leading to an overall 2016 growth rate of 2.4 percent to 30.8 million tonnes. In Chicago, O’Hare International (ORD, No. 20) experienced record total cargo volumes of more than 1.5 million tonnes last year.