Air freight in Germany down 12.1 pct in March-May period

Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-22 19:41:36|Editor: huaxia

BERLIN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Volumes of incoming and outgoing air freight to and from Germany decreased by 12.1 percent between March and May compared with the same period last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Wednesday.

While travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic had a "serious impact on air passenger transport," air freight transport continued comparatively unchanged, Destatis noted.

According to Destatis, passenger numbers at German airports plummeted by 87.4 percent in the same period as passenger air traffic in Germany came to an almost complete standstill by April.

Freight volumes on dedicated cargo flights grew by 7.9 percent between March and May and partly compensated the loss of belly-hold capacities on passenger flights, according to Destatis.

The extensive elimination of cargo capacities on passenger flights as well as selective bottlenecks in other transport routes led to rising prices in air freight transport. According to Destatis, air freight prices were already "significantly higher" than in the fourth quarter of 2019.

German exports to China in the first quarter of this year were particularly affected by the over 40-percent price increase in air freight over the same quarter of 2019, according to Destatis. Prices for air freight to the United States went up almost 10 percent while export prices to the United Arab Emirates via air cargo increased around 4 percent.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, some airports in Germany even expanded freight traffic volumes, with Frankfurt-Hahn, the country's fourth largest airport by freight volumes, saw its volumes up by 57 percent compared with last year. Enditem

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