By Rose Bridger, 17th June 2008

Cargo growth at Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport is 70 years old this year. As passenger numbers have risen to a throughput of 23 million in 2007, with projections of an increase to 32 million per year by 2015, freight at the airport grows without attracting much media attention. In February 2008, Manchester Airport announced a10.3 per cent increase in freight volumes, rising from 148,957 tonnes in 2006 to 166,500 in 2007. Freight capacity is being expanded for a projected throughput of 250,000 tonnes by 2015. New carriers operating at Manchester Airport in 2007 included Great Wall Airlines, FedEx Express, Air China Cargo and Aeroflot Cargo. Jett8 began operating at the airport in 2007, but in May it moved European flights to Malmo in Sweden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. 

World Freight Centre

Manchester Airport’s World Freight Centre is located close to Junction 6 of the M56. About 100 freight forwarders and agents are located on site. Manchester Airport handles the mix of cargo that is common at most airports. Whilst not much information is released to the public there are frequent press releases to the aviation industry trade press. Exports from the airport include aerospace and automotive components, biotechnology, electronics, pharmaceuticals and textiles. There are facilities for heavy and outsize cargo, but I have yet to find reports of specific shipments, which at other UK airports includes industrial equipment like generators and large items for the oil and gas industry.

Border Inspection Post

There is a Border Inspection Post for plants and animals, and in September 2007 the airport made the UK’s largest ever seizure of endangered species and live coral, which had been stolen from protected reefs off Indonesia. The airport has HazMat (Hazardous Materials) handling facilities, which typically handle all kinds of dangerous cargo from corrosive chemicals to radioactive materials. There was a slip up on 3rd December 2007, when a gas cylinder containing ethyl chloride, carried in a cargo consignment from Manchester Airport, exploded at a warehouse in Dubai, injuring one person. Ethyl chloride has many industrial uses including as a solvent and refrigerant.

Food & flowers

In 2007, Pangaean opened an 800 sq metre temperature controlled or ‘perishables’ handling centre in February 2007.  The facility expects its volumes to triple from 6,000 tonnes in its first year of operation to 18,000 tonnes in year two. The perishables handling centre is for food and flowers, including fish, vegetables and orchids from Taiwan. In addition to wide bodied jets carrying produce from the Far East, Africa and South America, the centre aims to grow volumes with imports on narrow bodied jets on short haul flights from Spain and Turkey, plus fish from Iceland. Additional routes for perishable produce were announced on December 2007, with three times per week from Tel Aviv and Shanghai, and weekly from Moscow. The centre also handles pharmaceuticals which require temperature control.

Cargo reporting

I think that improved public reporting of freight at airports, including Manchester, would be a good way to improve public awareness of what is flying over our heads, and a positive step for the aviation industry to improve its accountability. The framework for reporting could include:

    * Categories of cargo such as perishable food and ornamental plants, hazardous, heavyweight, consumer goods, industrial equipment, aid and humanitarian, military and mail

    * Imports, exports and trans-shipment - value and volumes, including any import/export imbalance

    * Load factors, and under-filled or empty cargo flights