Cargo volume up by 4.5 percent for PANYNJ in February this year

Apr 22, 2017: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) administered airports see region’s total cargo activity continue its improvement trend in February with a solid 4.5 percent growth rate.

Both domestic and international freight activity showed gains, despite the 2016 leap year effect. Growth was led by the domestic sector, which accounts for approximately 36 percent of the region’s total cargo activity and achieved a robust 9.5 percent increase and easily surpassed January’s strong gain of 8 percent. International freight activity grew at the modest rate of 1.9 percent. These trends are consistent with the nascent cargo recovery at other US airports.

The region’s passenger traffic edged up 0.3 percent in February, but the figure was suppressed by the extra day from 2016’s leap year that added approximately 301,000 passengers to last year’s total. Without 2016’s bump in passenger traffic from the extra day, February 2017 traffic would have grown 3.9 percent.

“Our airport system handled a record 8.762 million passengers – an improvement of 27,054 passengers compared to 2016. This modest gain was led entirely by a 0.9 percent gain in domestic passengers (an additional 52,252 travelers) as international traffic fell by 0.9 percent – down 25,199 passengers. Airlines cut seat capacity by 1.4 percent. Domestic seats inched down 0.8 percent and international seats fell 2.4 percent,” says the company through a statement.