Top 50 Cargo Airlines (2006)

September’s issue of Air Cargo World includes their annual list of the top 50 cargo airlines. The full article is here:

But the integrated express carriers remained dominant with their sprawling domestic businesses and growing grip on international trade. FedEx was first in traffic with just over 9 million freight tonne kilometers and fifth in international traffic, while UPS was the second largest domestic cargo airline with 5,315 million FTKs and No. 14 internationally.

Led by Korean Air, four of the top 10 carriers were Asian, suggesting this market remains strong despite a drop in East-to-West international traffic and domestic traffic in certain sectors.

The fastest-growing carrier last year among the top 50 was South African Airways, which is adding capacity to take advantage of a surging national economy and expanded its business nearly 34 percent over 2005. But the long-term growth story is in the Middle East, where carrier Emirates jumped to the No. 12 spot from No. 15 in 2005 on a 19.9 percent increase in traffic. It was the fifth straight double-digit gain at the carrier and means Emirates has more than tripled its traffic, based on FTKs, since 2002.

You can access a pdf file of the entire list of top 50 cargo airlines for 2006 by clicking the image in the article. Korean Air retained its number 3 spot, the top cargo airline that isn’t an integrator and also tops in international cargo. Lufthansa and Singapore round out the top 5. Those airlines that made noticeable gains include Emirates (+19.9%, 12th in the list), Air China (+17.6%, 18th in the list), Asiana (+20.1%, 19th in the list), Virgin (+15.1%, 33rd in the list), South African Airways (+33.8%, 37th in the list). Airlines that saw the biggest fall in tonnage include Kalitta Air (-17%, 29th in the list), Dragonair (-22.1%, 41st in the list), and Varig (-29.6%, 48th in the list).

Top 50 Cargo Airlines

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