Strong growth in volumes transported maindeck and by integrator/express operators but trucked shipments down sharply.
Flown air cargo handled at Brussels Airport in July showed a rise of almost 10% on the same month last year, the airport company has announced.
Total flown cargo last month totalled 45,758 tonnes, an increase of 9.9% compared to July 2019.
“This result is much more positive than the overall trend since, on a global scale, freight volume is continuing to fall largely due to the very steep decrease in belly cargo, i.e. the cargo on board of passenger aircraft, which covers 50% of the volumes transported around the world,” the company said.
Cargo handled by integrator/express operators recorded an increase of 25.3% to 21,961 tonneswhile full freighter shipments leapt by 89% to 20,013 tonnes.
“These strong increases compensate for the lack of freight capacity on board of passenger aircraft (-72%). These additional flights are operated by modern full cargo planes, as well as passenger aircraft which are converted for freight transport. These additional operations are mainly carried out during the day, which means that the number of night flights at Brussels Airport is not increasing,” it noted.
“When truck freight is added (which fell by 28.4% to 9,971 tonnes), the volume of cargo transported in July at Brussels Airport amounted to 55,729 tonnes, an increase of 0.3% compared to the same period last year.”
Total flown cargo handled in the first seven months of the year decreased by 2.5% on the same period last year to 281,487 tonnes.
However, full freighter traffic was up 35.2% to 107,653 tonnes and integrator/express shipments rose by 12.0% to 131,626 tonnes.
Belly cargo dipped by 53.9% to 42,208 tonnes and trucked cargo was down 21.0% to 79,722 tonnes.
Total cargo traffic for the January-July period decreased by 7.3% to 361,209 tonnes.
Source: Lloyd’s
