Air Cargo. Still the Cinderella of the airline business - CAPA's top 20 cargo airports

The air cargo business is an important part of the aviation mix and is characterised by three main modes: belly-hold freight on passenger aircraft, all-cargo operations and parcels services.

While all-cargo operators and, to a lesser degree, parcel distributors have tended to congregate at primary passenger hubs airports, there is an increasing trend to move away from those centres in favour of smaller regional airports, where surface distribution attributes are better. In some cases, cargo airlines are even finding it difficult to obtain slots are some of the larger airports.

Just as the location of distribution centres has shifted from town centres to motorway junctions, it looks as if airfreight operations are starting to follow them.

This CAPA report looks at some of the reasons for these developments.