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East Midlands and Stansted see air cargo surge

[ September 16, 2020   //   ]

Manchester Airports Group (MAG)-owned East Midlands and London Stansted saw a significant increase in demand for extra cargo flights to the US due to lack of belly hold capacity on passenger routes. In July and August, traditional a quiet time, EMA saw an increase of 21.2% and 18.5% respectively, while volumes at London Stansted increased by 43.6% and 25% in the same period.

MAG  said the current climate led to a rapid shift to online shopping as lockdown restrictions took hold.

With availability of belly-hold capacity reduced significantly to key markets, especially on popular routes to the US, there were an average of 60 additional cargo flights between EMA Airport and the US and, most notably, a 120% increase in the volume of goods travelling between EMA and New York JFK. There are alos extra weekly flights between London Stansted and the US.

These volumes are eclipsing what would normally be expected during the weeks leading up to Christmas, which is traditionally the busiest time of year for dedicated air cargo and express freight airlines.

On 9 September, new aviation and maritime minister Robert Courts told a session of the Transport Select Committee that EMA was in the top ten busiest freight airports in Europe.

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