APA Issue 1, 2021
DELIVERING THE GOODS Editor, Joe Bates, reports on the 2020 performance of the region’s leading cargo hubs and the key role they are playing in helping distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.
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n terms of volumes and payloads, air cargo fared much better than the passenger side of the business in 2020, and that seems likely to be repeated for most or all of this year as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc with people’s travel plans.
These included Shanghai Pudong (PVG), the third busiest cargo hub on the planet, which saw its cargo volumes rise by 1.37% to 3.68 million tonnes and Taipei Taoyuan (TPE), which handled a record 2.34 million tonnes of freight (+7.35%) to cement its Top 10 status.
Indeed, while the combination of travel restrictions, quarantine rules, the fear of catching COVID-19 and reduced airline services are keeping passengers away from airport terminals, cargo volumes have rallied and demand for some shipments has never been higher.
ACI World’s provisional traffic data for 2020 also shows that Incheon International Airport (INC) enjoyed a positive year for cargo movements with its annual tonnage numbers rising by 2.1% to 2.82 million.
Months of shop closures and being forced to stay at home, for example, has led to a boom in e-commerce and arguably companies like Amazon and Alibaba have never been so busy. While aircraft continue to bring vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medical supplies and now vaccines to countries across the globe as efforts are ramped up to finally win the war against COVID-19. The upturn in these consignments, in addition to the continued need for more traditional cargos flown across the region on freighters and in the belly-holds of passenger flights, means that some of the Asia-Pacific region’s biggest cargo hubs reported an upturn in volumes in 2020.
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And Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), an ACI Asia-Pacific affiliated member, consolidated its Top 10 ranking courtesy of the 3.1 million tonnes (+16%) to pass through its facilities in 2020. You can read more about its impressive performance and plans to enhance its cargo operations on page 28 of this issue. Taipei Taoyuan reveals that transhipment cargo soared by 19% last year to account for 51% of all freight handled at TPE. The upturn, it says, reflected the “noticeable performance of industries” in Chinese Taipei. The increase was also helped by the sizeable cargo fleets of TPE’s two home carriers, China Airlines and Eva Air, which the airport note prevented it from being “greatly challenged by the declining passenger traffic”.
