FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - According to the industry association BDL, German airports are not participating sufficiently in the global boom in air freight. The reasons for this are a lack of flexibility, high costs, and a lack of digitization among the authorities, complain BDL CEO Joachim Lang and Fraport board member Pierre Prüm. Instead of the global growth rate for air freight of around 11.3 percent, there was only a 1.8 percent increase in cargo volume in Germany last year. According to current estimates, air freight in Germany will continue to decline in the coming years.

Among other things, customs are not sufficiently prepared for the steadily increasing number of small e-commerce parcels from China, Lang criticizes. He is convinced that other mail order companies will also copy the logistics methods of Chinese companies such as Temu and Shein. "This is not a one-hit wonder." The rapid digitization of government agencies is therefore essential, and he believes that other countries are moving faster to procure the necessary software.

Only time and money count

Much more than in the passenger sector, the only criteria that count in freight are the economic factors of time and money, explains Prüm. Even small changes can cause major shifts in the flow of goods. In recent years, German airports have lost a lot of business to Western European airports such as Luxembourg, Brussels, and Liège. German air freight is also increasingly being shipped via hubs in the Middle East. Last year, Frankfurt lost its top spot as Europe's largest air freight hub to Istanbul.

As in passenger transport, the BDL is calling for significantly lower location costs – for example, for air traffic control, whose fees have doubled since 2019. It also says that the introduction of bio-kerosene must be made competition-neutral through binding blending quotas. Air safety standards and Europe-wide customs regulations must be implemented in a uniform and simplified manner. Lang and Prämm announced that they would approach the federal ministries with the relevant details.

The association also opposes further restrictions on existing operating hours at airports. In addition to Frankfurt, Leipzig-Halle and Cologne-Bonn are important hubs for air freight. /ceb/DP/jha