Changi and Dubai International Airport Throughput Performance

Running head: PERFORMANCE IN CARGO THROUPUT AT CHANGI AND DUBAI
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS
CARGO OUTPUT AT CHANGI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND DUBAI
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CHANGI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CARGO THROUGHPUT PERFORMANCE

CHANGI AND DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT THROUGHPUT
PERFORMANCE 2
For six years, Singapore’s Changi International airport has been ranked the number one
airport worldwide by Skytax (Jacobs, 2018). CIA has the second most valuable airport brand in
the world, valued at $754 (Pillai, 2019). Singapore ships large volumes of cargo, which indicates
the strength of its export economy. The major cargo that CIA handles are perishables,
pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce cargo. 24 cargo airlines operate at CIA, with more than 300
weekly scheduled flights from Singapore to 45 cities in 25 countries. In 2016, Changi
International Airport experienced an increase in cargo throughput by 6.3%, which is 1.97 million
tons. The airport had a cargo throughput of 177,360 tons in the month of December, which is an
8.4% increase from the first half of the year (Fenema, 2016). In 2016, the top five country
markets for airfreight were U. S, India, China, Australia and Hong Kong’ (Fenema, 2016). Cargo
throughput grew by 7.9% in 2017, which is 2.13 million tons, thereby crossing the 2-million
mark. In December 2017, CIA handled 188,740 tons of airfreight throughput, which is 64%
[STAT times, 2018]. Cargo throughput increased by 1.4% in 2018, reaching 2.15 million tons,
which decreased by 3.8% in December that year (Yi, 2019). CIA handled 2.01 million tons of
cargo in 2019, which is a decrease by 6.5% from 2018 (Yi, 2019). The data above is interpreted
in a chart in appendix I.
DUBAI INTERNATIONAL CARGO (DXB) THROUGHPUT PERFORMANCE
Dubai International Airport is the world’s busiest hub for long distance flights, with
emirates operating from there (Kamel, 2019). DXB plays a major role to the economy of Dubai.
DXB won for four consecutive years the Cargo Hub of the year at the Supply Chain and
Transport Awards (SCATA). The airport opened a cargo mega terminal in 2008, which has a
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CHANGI AND DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT THROUGHPUT
PERFORMANCE 3
capacity of 1.2 million tons. The following year, 2009, DXB handled cargo volume of 1.9
million tons.
A brief data presentation of DXB cargo throughput performance from 2013-2019
Year Volume in tons
2019 2,486,830
2017 2,510,557
2016 2,418,256
2015 2,357,567
2014 2,077,445
2013 2,450,533
In 2018, volume of cargo handled by DXB was 2.5 million tons, which is a fall by 4.8%.
In 2019, DXB handled 659,167 tons of cargo in the fourth quarter. Annually, the total cargo
volume was 2,514,918 tons (Hammond, 2019). In the third quarter of 2019, cargo throughput
handled at DXB fell by 5.9% to 636,575 tons. During the 9 months of 2019, freight volumes also
reduced by 4.1 percent to 1.9 million tons. In the fourth quarter of 2019, DXB handled a cargo
throughput of 659, 167 tons, which is a fall from the fourth quarter of 2018 (Nagraj, 2018). The
above data is interpreted in a chart in appendix II
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