Fraport AG convinced of long-term growth for air cargo industry

The global air cargo industry, though it is dealing with a temporary crisis, won’t undergo structural change, according to Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, the managing company of Frankfurt Airport.

In a speech to the 12th International Frankfurt Aur Freight Days conference, Fraport AG’s executive board chairman, Wilhelm Bender, said that this strong confidence was based on past experience gained during the 1970s oil crisis, the Gulf War and the Asian economic crisis.

He said that the past “has taught us that air cargo is a growth market par excellence. But air cargo is also a very sensitive market that reacts earlier than other branches to the cyclical fluctuations of the world economy. We expect that, within a manageable time frame, we will be able to build on the industry’s normal growth.”
Though Frankfurt Airport has experienced a negative 4.6 per cent growth rate in air cargo for the first three quarters of 2001, Bender said that short-term trends should not block the view on long-term developments.

“It is intolerable to leave the shaping of our world to terrorists,” he said.