Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt airport, has seen demand for air travel “surge dynamically” during the first nine months of 2022.
Frankfurt airport, which is Germany’s main hub, is expected to cater for between 45 and 50 million passengers this year, according to Fraport’s latest predictions. As a comparison, the airport recorded passenger traffic of 70.5 million in 2019, the highest level in its history, and just 24.8 million last year when services were badly affected by Covid travel restrictions.
Stefan Schulte, CEO of Fraport, said: “Following a modest start early in the year due to the braking effect of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the volume accelerated significantly from March into the fall.
“In the third quarter we also significantly boosted the group's net profit, which had still been negative in the first half of the year as a result of the complete write-off of our investment in Russia.”
Fraport also operates 14 regional airports in Greece, which have already exceeded their pre-Covid passenger numbers, as leisure travel led the recovery in air travel this summer.
Frankfurt airport welcomed 35.9 million in the first nine months of 2022 after getting off to a “weak start” in the early weeks of the year due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid. Demand then “rebounded quickly” from the spring onwards.
"Following the aviation industry's longest and most painful crisis ever, the extremely rapid growth in passenger volumes posed numerous challenges,” said Schulte.
“Thanks to early and close co-ordination with our partners and jointly implemented measures, we nevertheless succeeded in ensuring largely stable and orderly operations for the around 7.2 million passengers that travelled from Frankfurt airport during the summer school holidays.”
Schulte added that Fraport was “continuing to work hard to expand our operational resources”, which has included recruiting 1,800 new employees for baggage handling.
Between July and September, Fraport’s airports increased revenue by 46 per cent year-on-year to €925.6 million on the back of “sustained strong passenger demand”, with net profit also rising by 47.4 per cent to €151.2 million compared to the third quarter of 2021.
For the first nine months of the year, revenue reached €2.14 billion, up 57.6 per cent year-on-year. Although Fraport’s net profit fell by 17 per cent to €98.1 million compared with the same period in 2021, after the company had to write off its investment in Russia, where it had operated Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg before the war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022.