Frankfurt Airport (FRA) served nearly 6.6 million passengers – an increase of 3.4 percent year-on-year. Aircraft movements scaled up by 1.4 percent to 45,871 takeoffs and landings.
Combined maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) expanded by 1.7 percent to some 2.8 million metric tons. Only cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) dropped by 4.7 percent to 174,392 metric tons. This was mostly because of the weak global economy and the fact that two public holidays (Whit Monday and Corpus Christi Day) fell in June this year compared to May last year.
At the beginning of the summer school vacation in the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, FRA sets a new daily passenger record on June 30, when 241,228 travelers passed through Germany’s largest gateway surpassing the previous record of 237,966 passengers from July 29, 2018.
Dr. Stefan Schulte Fraport AG’s executive board chairman commented: “Despite the very high passenger volumes at the start of the summer holidays, operations were stable and much smoother than last year. This proves the effectiveness of the measures taken by us and all partners involved. Over the next few weeks, Frankfurt Airport will continue to be very busy.”
In the January-to-June period of 2019, in excess of 33.6 million passengers traveled via Frankfurt Airport, representing a 3.0 increase comparative to last year. Aircraft movements were up 2.1 percent to 252,316 takeoffs and landings. MTOWs also rose by 2.1 percent to almost 15.6 million metric tons. Cargo volumes slipped 2.8 percent to approximately 1.1 million metric tons.
Across the Group, airports in Fraport’s international portfolio largely performed well during the first six months of 2019. At Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU), traffic increased by 3.4 percent to 859,557 passengers (June 2019: up 6.7 percent to 188,622 passengers). The two Brazilian airports of Porto Alegre (POA) and Fortaleza (FOR), combined, registered traffic growth of 8.5 percent to some 7.4 million passengers (June 2019: up 0.6 percent to around 1.2 million passengers).
Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru saw traffic surge by 6.2 percent to some 11.3 million passengers during the first half of 2019 (in June: up 7.9 percent to about 1.9 million passengers). The 14 Greek airports reported combined growth of 2.7 percent to approximately 10.9 million passengers (June 2019: up 2.1 percent to around 4.5 million passengers).
At the two Bulgarian airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR), overall traffic contracted by 12.9 percent to some 1.4 million passengers in the first six months (in June: down 12.4 percent to 858,043 passengers). Following the strong growth of the past three years, BOJ and VAR are currently experiencing a phase of supply-side market consolidation. At the Turkish Riviera, Antalya Airport (AYT) served about 13.2 million passengers – a gain of 8.1 percent (June 2019: up 10.0 percent to just under 4.8 million passengers). Traffic at Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg, Russia, jumped 10.3 percent to almost 8.8 million passengers (June 2019: up 3.8 percent to approximately 2.0 million passengers). In China, Xi’an Airport (XIY) grew by 6.2 percent to 22.9 million passengers (June 2019: up 4.3 percent to about 3.8 million passengers).
