BY LBC STAFF
Airports in Monterrey, Caracas and Buenos Aires were among the fastest-growing in cargo traffic in Latin America last year, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis based on data from Swiss-based Airports Council International (ACI).
Cargo traffic at Monterrey (MTY), the 20th-largest cargo airport in Latin America, grew 42.4 percent to 48,710 metric tons. Meanwhile, traffic at Caracas (CCS), the 14th-largest cargo airport, grew 39.6 percent to 85,655 metric tons. And at the Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires (AEP), the 34th-largest cargo airport, traffic grew 38.3 percent to 18,945 metric tons. The three were among the top five winners in Latin American cargo growth last year, our analysis shows.
All in all, cargo reached 4.6 million metric tons in Latin America last year, an increase of 14.3 percent from 2009, according to ACI. The top 50 airports alone accounted for 91.3 percent of that total.
Bogota (BOG) continues to be the cargo king of Latin America, with 526,844 metric tons last year, an increase of 17 percent.
Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport (GRU) follows, with 430,850 metric tons in cargo traffic, up 12.6 percent.
Mexico City, Santiago and Lima round out the top five cargo airports. All three grew by double digits last year.
However, thanks to a decline in Rio de Janeiro it fell of the list of the top ten cargo airports in Latin America, replaced by Guadalajara.
Chile’s Iquique (IQQ) was the growth leader last year. Cargo traffic jumped 66.2 percent to 14,590 metric tons. Cancun (CUN) has the second-highest increase – 62.1 percent to 26,558 metric tons.
The airport with the worst decline was Brasilia (BSB), with a 35.2 percent fall to 32,651 metric tons. Two other Brazilian cities followed – Belo Horizonte (CNF) and Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport (CGH), with declines of 20.3 percent and 20.1 percent, respectively.
Other losers include Puerto Plata (POP) in the Dominican Republic and Recife (REC) in Brazil, which saw their cargo decline by 16.9 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively.
That means Brazil accounted for four of the five worst performers last year — in contrast to Mexico, which accounted for two of the five best performers.
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