Freight Traffic, DFW, HKG and KIX, 1982-2022

Freight Traffic DFW HKG and KIX 1982 2022

Source: Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) and Kansai International Airport (KIX).

In the 1980s and 1990s, traffic handled by DFW grew rapidly, but peaked in 2000 at just above 60 million passengers and 950,000 tons. Over the next 15 years, little change took place for passenger traffic, while air cargo remained stable. The stagnation of air cargo is partly attributed to the erosion of the Texan IT sector and the NAFTA trade being bypassed by economic growth in Asia. Most of the growth in air cargo flows took place across the Pacific, a market that is not much serviced by DFW.

A similar observation can be made for Kansai, which has not experienced much growth. While during the 1990s, the Japanese electronics industry was still growing, many of its activities were relocated to China. For Hong Kong, the growth has been substantial, and the airport is the largest air freight platform in the world, servicing the Pearl River Delta. Still, after the post-COVID-19 surge, freight traffic is facing a downward trend. This is mainly attributed to the relocation of several high-tech manufacturing facilities outside the Pear River Delta to new offshore locations, such as Vietnam and India.