Miami International Airport (MIA) hasn’t been immune to the general worldwide cargo malaise. For the first six months of the year, total cargo tonnage at the airport totaled just more than 1 million tonnes, a 1.96-percent, year-over-year decrease. Movements out of Asia have helped stop the bleeding, however, as cargo from the country represented a 9.2-percent, year-to-date increase over the same period in 2010.
With Asiana Airlines scheduled to launch three weekly freighter flights to the airport in September, 2011′s numbers might even continue to rise. Contributions from the region have been swiftly growing. Officials at MIA saw nine weekly flights from the Far East land in Miami during 2009; last year, that number jumped to 19 flights a week.
Unfortunately, the rest of Miami’s numbers paint a bleak picture. Examining June’s month-over-month totals, airport officials saw a 5.83-percent decrease in freight tonnage and a 6.83-percent drop in mail tonnage. Most of this decrease came from international movements, with month-over-month freight and mail changes of -7.06 percent and -11.54 percent, respectively.
