Preliminary data from Airports Council International (ACI) showed that Hong Kong International Airport handled the most air cargo in 2014, rising 6.1 percent from the year before to 4.3 million tonnes. Globally, airfreight volume was healthy in 2014 after three years of tepid growth. Regionally, the Middle Eastern airports increased volume 11.8 percent in 2014, which makes it the highest growth region in 2014. Dubai handled over 2.4 tonnes of cargo, but that was a decrease of 3.1 percent in 2014. The shift to Dubai World Central (DWC), however, is setting the stage for it to become the region’s air cargo hub. DWC has experienced significant growth – 262.5 percent – since it began operations in 2014. Doha and Abu Dhabi, ranked second and third in freight volume for the region, reporting double-digit gains of 13.2 percent and 12.8 percent respectively in 2014.
Growth in the Asia-Pacific airfreight market was also strong, with a 5.7 percent rise overall. After Hong Kong, Shanghai was the region’s second most frequented airfreight hub, with an 8.6 increase over 2013, followed by Incheon, with 3.3 percent growth. Tokyo saw double-digit growth of 14.7 percent, which put the airport at over 1 million tonnes of freight in 2014.
The African air cargo market grew by 3.8 percent, ACI reports. Cairo grew by 8 percent and it is the highest-ranking airport in Africa in terms of airfreight. However, Johannesburg dropped by 6.4 percent in total volume, due to the lack of growth on the continent.
The report states that Europe appears to be in recovery, with airfreight growth at 3.6 percent in 2014. Istanbul and Amsterdam posted the strongest growth rates among Europe’s top hubs at 6.7 percent and 11.6 percent respectively, compared to 2013. Frankfurt and Paris, which are Europe’s busiest hubs, increased volumes 1.8 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.
Latin America and the Caribbean results were pretty flat due to weakness in the Brazilian and Argentine markets. Brazilian airports, which have had the lion’s share of freight traffic for the region, saw freight volume decline by 1.4 percent. On the other hand, Mexico gained by 5 percent in freight volume. Guarulhos airport in São Paulo, and Mexico City were the busiest, posting gains of 4.2 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. Bogotá only had a slight increase of 0.8 percent.
Growth in North America cargo went hand-in-hand with lower unemployment and containment of inflation. Overall growth in airfreight volume was 3.5 percent. Memphis, home to FedEx, and Louisville, home to UPS, increased 2.8 percent and 3.5 percent respectively, but the big gains were at Chicago O’Hare with volumes moving up by 11.4 percent.
“Regardless of the economic, geopolitical and health risks that lingered on the horizon in 2014, it is impressive to witness the overall resilience of the industry,” said Rafael Echevarne, ACI’s world economic director. “Air freight rebounded after almost three years of growth stagnation, whereas passenger traffic continues to post growth in the realm of 5 percent year after year following the great recession.”