The five biggest winners
The Airports Council International (ACI) confirmed the provisional freight figures for 2018 recently (see page 20 of our Aviation Special in ITJ 21-22 / 2019). The growth registered by five major airports is revealing.
There’s a balm yet for any suffering managers at Hong Kong airport. According to the official global statistics, year-on-year growth at the world’s largest air cargo hub in 2018 was greater than was previously expected in spring this year. With a total volume of 5.12 million t the airport in the Chinese special administrative region grew by 1.5% (instead of by 1.4%, as originally predicted).
The figures published in September don’t change the ranking of the top 20 airports, however. Only Hong Kong’s neighbour in the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou, and Chicago O’Hare airport recorded further slight upward adjustments. Guangzhou, 17th on the list, grew by 6.2 instead of 5%; and 18th-placed O’Hare by 5 instead of 3.6%.
Rockford airport (RFD) is also at home in the metropolitan region in Midwestern USA, giving the latter another iron in the airfreight fire. The ACI says that of all the gateways worldwide where more than 0.25 million t of freight were handled in 2018, it grew the fastest to its total of 306,332 t, namely by 56.6% vis-à-vis 2017.
The reason is Amazon Air’s commitment; the corporation followed in the footsteps of UPS. Another US airport is ranked fifth, namely Philadelphia (PHL) on the east coast, one of American Airlines’ hubs. It handled 503,766 t of freight last year.
The positions in between are filled by the airport in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi (NBO), which handled 342,579 t, another good performance in a global comparison; by the Belgian express hub Liège (LGG), with 871,596 t; and by Xi’An airport (XIY), whose 312,639 t made it the largest location in northwestern China.
Xi’An airport’s majority owner, the China West Airport Group, owns 50.9% of it, with the airport operator Fraport’s subsidiary Fraport Asia second with 24.5%. China West is set to complete the hub’s next development phase in 2020.
