Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world's airport, recently released its study on the covid-19 impact and its new ranking of the top 10 world’s busiest airports for cargo traffic in 2020.

During 2020, air cargo traffic was much less affected by COVID 19 than passenger traffic, which saw an overall decrease of -64.6% compared to -8.9% for cargo volume, reaching an estimated 109 million metric tonnes, and even some airports recording an increase in cargo volumes in 2020. The top 10 airports account for 28% of the total cargo volume this year and they grew their volumes by 3% due to the growth in demand for online consumer goods, medical supplies, and personal protective equipment.

Compared to 29.6 million metric tonnes handled in 2019, these top 10 airports handled almost 30.6 million metric tonnes in 2020.

Due to differences in the response to COVID-19 and the severity of COVID-19 in each area, there are many changes in the rankings for 2020 compared to 2019. Memphis International Airport surpassed Hong Kong International Airport as the top busiest airport in terms of cargo volume in 2020 with a 6.7% increase. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport even saw a growth rate of 15% and move up to the rank 4. Shanghai Pudong International Airport maintained a relatively stable trend to stay in the Top 3.