Air Freight

See also 

• Air Freight News

Air freight is not quite the same as air cargo, which also includes mail.

IATA Air Freight Monthly Analysis

See link

IATA produces monthly air freight figures for the global industry. Some recent examples:

Air Freight Monthly Analysis – Apr 2019
29 May 2019 

Air Freight Monthly Analysis – Jul 2019
5 September 2019

Air Freight Monthly Analysis – Aug 2019
9 October 2019 

CAA produces airport statistics

Monthly and annually for all UK airports.  CAA airport data

https://www.caa.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CAA/Content/Standard_Content/Data_and_analysis/Datasets/Airport_stats/Airport_data_2018_annual/Table_13_2_Freight.pdf

Freight. Tonnes    Source – CAA data

The CAA data from 2015:

the other UK airports deal with under 1,000 tonnes of air freight per year.

See CAA Table 13.2 Air freight 2005 to 2015

for all the freight data for all UK airports every year from 2005 to 2015

Heathrow air freight in recent years:

UK Air Freight tonnage  – CAA data

Total 2013

from RCD Aviation

.

Air Freight

CAA data showing air freight at all UK airports 2002 to 2012

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/2012Annual/Table_13_2_Freight_2002_2012.pdf

(Tonnes)

Excerpt showing just the largest airports, by air freight, for some of the years:

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CAA data.   Total All Reporting UK Airports. Air freight. (Tonnes)

2001     2,143,281

2002     2,193,255

2003     2,205,934

2004     2,368,601

2005     2,360,984

2006     2,314,547

2007     2,325,239

2008     2,282,153

2009     2,047,861

2010     2,324,822

2011    2,297,602    down -1% compared to 2010

2012   2,302,329   almost no change compared to 2011

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/2011Annual/Table_13_2_Freight_2001_2011.pdf

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/2012Annual/Table_13_2_Freight_2002_2012.pdf

 Global air freight in 2012 (IATA data)

http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/MIS_Note_Dec12.pdf

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AirportWatch report  on air freight

 “Air Freight: The Impacts”  Air freight pays no tax on aviation fuel.  It is exempt from VAT.  And it does not pay the equivalent of Air Passenger Duty.   10.12.2009  More …..

Full report    “Air Freight: the Impacts” full report  (pdf)   38 pages
5 page summary   “Air Freight: the Impacts” Summary
Airport-by-airport analysis  Airport by Airport analysis   15 pages

Sources of information on air freight

Civil Aviation Authority statistics

(Air Freight is Table 13 each month)

Trade press sources:

Air Cargo World              

Air  Cargo News            

International Freighting Weekly

UK Airport News                

BA World Cargo News  

AEA   (Association of European Airlines)  

IATA press releases

 World’s busiest airports by cargo traffic (Wikipedia)

(2009)
1.  Memphis  (3,697,054 metric tonnes)   2.  Hong Kong     3.  Shanghai     4.  Seoul
 5.  Paris Charles de Gaulle     6.  Anchorage     7.  Louisville     8. Dubai     9.  Frankfurt     10.  Narita     11.  Singapore     12.  Miami     13.  Los Angeles     14.  Beijing
15.  Taiwan     16.  Heathrow  (1,349,571 tonnes)   17.  Amsterdam     18. JFK New York     19.  Chicago     20.  Bangkok

Mail sent by air freight    

The CAA provides data – each year
CAA airport statistics
Table 16 1: Mail by Type and Nat of Operator
Table 16 2: Mail (past 10 years)
Table 17: Intl and Domestic Mail
Table 18: Mail by Acft Configuration
eg.   Table 16 2 Mail 2000 2010 and
‘Table 16 2 Mail 2002 2012.pdf’

see also CAA Figures for mail during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010
for the 10 UK airports with the most mail.

UK Air freight tonnage month by month,

compared to equivalent month a year earlier  (CAA figures)   see link ……

See also BAA airports data, month by month.   BAA release the figures for their airports, around the middle of each month, at   BAA press releases

Recent  BAA monthly figures have been put together, for ease of access, at
BAA monthly freight data.

Air freight in the UK in recent years

 Air freight in the UK in 2010
These were the top 11 airports for air freight.   (tonnes)  (CAA figures)
Airport Name                 2010 tonnes            % change from 2009
HEATHROW                         1,472,988                    +15
EAST MIDLANDS                    273,669                     + 7
STANSTED                             202,238                     + 11
MANCHESTER                        115,922                     +13
GATWICK                               104,032                      +39
BELFAST INTERNATIONAL        29,716                       0
LUTON                                      28,743                       0
MANSTON (KENT INT)               28,103                      – 6
BIRMINGHAM                            21,605                     + 65
EDINBURGH                              20,357                     -14
PRESTWICK                              12,163                     – 9
Total of all reporting UK airports in 2008 =  2,324,822 tonnes – (+ 14% more than in 2009)
CAA freight statistics 2010          Freight 2000 – 2010

Air freight in the UK in 2009

These were the top 11 airports for air freight.   (tonnes)  (CAA figures)
Airport Name                 2009 tonnes            % change from 2008
HEATHROW                  1,277,649                      – 9
EAST MIDLANDS              255,120                      – 2
STANSTED                       182,810                      – 8
MANCHESTER                  102,543                     – 28
GATWICK                           74,679                     – 31
KENT INTERNATIONAL        30,037                     +17
BELFAST INTERNATIONAL  29,803                     -17
LUTON                                28,643.                    – 29
EDINBURGH                        23,79.                    + 92
PRESTWICK                       13,385                    – 42
BIRMINGHAM                      13,069                    + 7
Total of all reporting UK airports in 2009 =  2,047,861 tonnes – ( – 10% less than in 2008)
CAA freight statistics 2009          Freight 1999 – 2009

Air freight in the UK in 2008

These were the top 11 airports for air freight.   (tonnes)  (CAA figures)
Airport Name                 2008 tonnes            % change from 2007
HEATHROW                 1397053.818                + 7%
EAST MIDLANDS           261506.671                 – 5
STANSTED                    197738.177                 – 3
MANCHESTER              141780.692                 – 14
GATWICK                      107702.029                 – 37
LUTON                            40517.9                    + 6
BELFAST INTERNAT       36114.583                  – 6
KENT INTERNAT             25673.281                  – 10
PRESTWICK                   22965.994                  – 27
EDINBURGH                   12417.769                  – 36
BIRMINGHAM                  12191.896                 – 10

Total of all reporting UK airports in 2008 =  2,282,153 tonnes – (2% less than in 2007)
CAA freight statistics 2008          Freight 1998 – 2008
see also BAA airports freight data for all of 2008 – see BAA press release 

Air Freight in the UK in 2007
These were the top 12 airports for air freight.    (tonnes)  (CAA figures)
1    Heathrow                         1,310,987
2    N’ham East Midlands          274,753
3    Stansted                            203,747
4    Gatwick                             171,078
5    Manchester                        165,368
6    Belfast International               38,429
7    Luton                                   38,095
8    Prestwick                             31,517
9    Kent                                     28,371
10   Edinburgh                            19,292
11   Birmingham                          13,585
12   Coventry                                7,469
Total of all reporting UK airports in 2007 =  2,325,772 tonnes – (no increase on 2006)
CAA freight statistics 2007

Air Freight in the UK in 2006
These were the top 10 airports for air freight.    (tonnes)
(CAA figures)
1   Heathrow                      1,263,129
2   N’ham East Midlands        272,303
3   Stansted                          224,312
4   Gatwick                           211,857
5   Manchester                      148,957
6   Belfast International            38,417
7   Edinburgh                           35,389
8   Prestwick                           28,537
9   Kent                                   20,841
10  Luton                                17,993
11  Birmingham                       14,681
12 Coventry                              7,785
Total of all UK reporting airports in 2006 =   2,315,445 tonnes
(a 2% increase on 2005)
Freight  (tonnes)  in 2002   (CAA figures)
1  Heathrow                        1,234,940
2  Gatwick                            242,519
3  N’ham East Midlands         219,252
4  Stansted                            184,449
5  Manchester                        113,279
6  Prestwick                            39,500
7  Kent International                 32,240
8  Belfast International              29,274
9  Edinburgh                            21,232
10  Luton                                 20,459
Total of all UK reporting airports in 2002  =  2,195,433 tonnes

DfT produces analysis of the end-to-end journey of UK air freight

12.5.2009    The DfT has published its end to end analysis for air freight in the UK. I t is a 56 page document, containing a great deal of information about air freight in the UK, over past decades, and projections into the future. The document focuses mainly on Heathrow – the largest cargo airport in the UK, and East Midlands, which has the most express courier services.   The UK imports (57%) more air freight than it exports (43%) by weight. This adds up to over 1,280,000 tonnes of imports (1,230,000 tonnes excluding domestic air freight) and 960,000 tonnes of exports. The primary routes for air freight in and out of the UK are the transatlantic routes to and from the United States for both imports and exports, and also routes bringing imports from the major Asian economies.  There is a lot of detail.    More …..

Air Freighter accidents

Unfortunately, being older aircraft and with less attention to safety in some countries, there are far more accidents to frieght aircraft that to passenger aircraft.   More …..