urope's four prime cargo gateways are facing tougher times as the downturn in the global economy begins to bite into traffic throughput. These airports also have to overcome increasing capacity restraints on the ground.

Germany's Frankfurt Airport had a continuous growth run of four years, which kept it ahead of the pack. But Frankfurt says the rapid growth has slowed considerably and that it will become much tougher to maintain any growth of its cargo business.

This revelation could be self-evident with the traffic figures for 2007 revealing that Frankfurt retains its crown as the top European gateway, but only just. Last year, Frankfurt handled 2.17 million tonnes of air freight, a 1.9 percent growth rate. But coming up fast on the rails, Paris Charles De Gaulle International, achieved a 6.4 percent growth rate in 2007, for a total of 2.05 million tonnes.

CDG's two biggest cargo players, Air France Cargo and FedEx, which has its main European hub there, account for most of Paris's traffic spurt. Air freight at Paris has grown despite a strict night curfew at the airport.

Frankfurt remains curfew free - for the moment.

But the trade-off for a badly needed third runway, set to be operational by 2011, means Frankfurt will have to curtail nighttime freighter flights. Its biggest freight operator, Lufthansa Cargo, fought against the planned flight reductions, and has won some concessions.

Lufthansa and DHL's joint venture freighter operation, Leipzig-based Aerologic, could draw some traffic away from Frankfurt. But LH Cargo is conflicted. The operator wants to divert more traffic away from Frankfurt, while retaining its dominant presence at the main hub.

Concrete Plans

Airport operator Fraport believes Frankfurt can remain Europe's leading cargo gateway but knows that goal won't be achieved by just increasing runway capacity.

Other cargo-related infrastructure improvements are needed. That is why the airport is investing heavily in a new railhead that will directly feed into the airport's south side freight area.

Frankfurt remains ambitious. It's on track to increase cargo and mail traffic by 70 percent through to 2020, eventually producing annual throughputs of 3.16 million tonnes.

Amsterdam and London, the other two leading European gateways, might want to play a part in forestalling those ambitions. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has worked hard in recent years to build its credentials as a top cargo hub. Schiphol claims to have achieved that goal with a total of 1.65 million tonnes of cargo handled in 2007, up 5.5 percent over the year before.

Schiphol makes no secret hat it has enjoyed poaching freighter business away from its European rivals. The airport made a point of targeting the major Asian carriers, to the extent that traffic to and from Asia currently represents 44 percent of its cargo business. Last year, Asia related traffic grew a further 8.4 percent. North American traffic, by comparison, accounts for 20 percent of Schiphol volume, and last year grew just 2.5 percent.

The Dutch Airport's success is not only because it has attracted several successful Asian cargo carriers. The airport spent time persuading the major logistic service providers to establish their main European distribution centers close to Schiphol, allowing them to develop prime handling facilities on-airport. The airport also established a strong cargo marketing team, which it is continuing to strengthen.

Gap Minded

Strong marketing is apparently lacking at London Heathrow, which languishes as Europe's fourth place cargo gateway.

At one time Heathrow threatened to eclipse Frankfurt, but not anymore. The London gateway disbanded any semblance of a cargo marketing team years ago and today treats cargo as an adjunct to its real estate business.

Cargo throughput at Heathrow last year topped just 1.39 million tonnes, although this reflected a 3.9 percent increase over the previous year. The BAA-operated London hub has had some success in diverting freighter traffic to its alternative gateway at the smaller London Stansted Airport, north of London.

British Airways World Cargo manages its 747 freighter operation at Stansted and FedEx also has a substantial presence there. Korea's Asiana Airlines is the only other freighter operator as yet to go for the Stansted option.

But rather than building the Stansted cargo business, tonnage actually fell away by nearly 10 percent to 206,602 tonnes in 2007, according to BAA. This was probably due mainly to BAWC's downsizing its freighter operations from four to three 747 freighters.

BAA said it also has difficulty countering a strong differential between high imports and low export volumes. A little more marketing effort might help.

… Briefly

Cargo traffic for European airlines grew at its sharpest rate in two years in February, expanding 7.2 percent over the same month a year ago on the strength of a 10 percent gain in trans-Atlantic trade, according to the Association of European Airlines. … TNT's express division is introducing a new packaging line designed to better protect shipments from damage. The company will first deploy its new parcels and satchels in Europe and the Middle East. … AirBridge Cargo chose Lufthansa Systems' Lido Take-off Performance Analysis technology to optimize flight operations at the freight airline. … Cargo traffic at Munich Airport grew 6.8 percent in the first three months of 2008 over last year's first quarter. … Brussels-based ground handler Aviapartner, in the midst of a expansion into various markets, said its freight handling grew 48.6 percent in 2007 and that it handled 1.45 million tonnes of cargo. … British Airways switched its twice-daily 777 Houston flights to London Heathrow Airport from London Gatwick, giving cargo customers greater access to BA's larger network. … Freight airline Cargo B named Euro GSA its general sales agent at the Manchester and London Heathrow airports and named AirlineCargoServices its GSA in Dublin. … DHL is adding Paris Vatry Airport to its European air network with two daily flights using 757 and ATR-72 freighters linking the site 60 miles from Paris with destinations in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. ... British Airways and DHL added a second weekly 727 freighter between Bahrain and Lahore, Pakistan, as part of their joint cargo agreement. … Software company Kale Consultants will provide Finnair cargo and mail revenue accounting service. … Logistics provider Dachser formed a joint venture with Russian company Intellect Logistics called OOO Dacher. … Etihad Crystal Cargo renewed its contract for the management of unit load devices with Unitpool of Switzerland. … Czech Airlines Cargo signed a contract to use OAG Cargo's Inforwarding announcements service to publish time sensitive operational announcements to the portal's 25,000 registered freight forwarding users. … Lufthansa will begin flying to Mumbai this summer, with three weekly departures, and also will add five weekly departures to Singapore. … El Al Israel Airlines showed a $31.7 million net profit in 2007 compared to a $33.9 million loss the year before, and overall revenue grew 16 percent to $1.93 billion. … Schiphol Real Estate started construction on a Panalpina cargo building, a 107,000-square-foot facility due to open in the first half of 2009 near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. … Arkefly and First Choice Airways, Thomsonfly, Jetairfly and TUIFly Nordic are the latest carriers within TUI Travel to sign up with supply and management pooling specialist Unitpool. … Fraport Cargo Services was awarded a police certification by the local German government for developing security procedures protecting cargo at Frankfurt Airport. … Ground handling services provider Menzies Aviation, as part of its expansion plans in Scandinavia, will acquire Novia Sverige, a wholly owned subsidiary of Novia Scandinavia. … Etihad Crystal Cargo struck an interline deal with Italian freighter airline Cargoitalia out of Milan Malpensa Airport. Etihad also named SkyBridge Networks its cargo general sales agent in Bulgaria and Romania. ... TNT Express will use ORTEC's optimization software update TNT Express' global information networks. … Panalpina and Centurion Air Cargo introduced new connections to Latin America through Miami, with onward service to: Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla in Colombia; Caracas, Lima; and Manaus, Brazil. … AirBridge Cargo Airlines, the scheduled cargo subsidiary of Volga-Dnepr Group, took delivery of its third 747-400 extended-range freighter from Boeing. … Ground handling provider Swissport International is adding new handling services in Vienna, Kiev, Paris and Athens.