The cargo contraction, to around 142,000 tonnes, was three times the rate of decline in November and nearly five times the year-on-year decrease in tonnage in October which had brought nine months of solid growth to an end.
Fraport AG, Frankfurt’s operator, is expecting further declines through 2009, however, as the airport’s main customer, Lufthansa Cargo, trimmed capacity by 10 per cent at the beginning of the month following a 20-per cent decline in its December throughput.