Fraport’s freight volumes fall, but its financials are healthy

Airport operator Fraport has reported that the group’s 2015 annual revenue climbed by 8.4% year-on-year to reach €2.58 billion, while operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or ebitda) increased by 7.4% to €848.8 million.

The positive business performance was mainly due to increased passenger numbers passing through Frankfurt Airport, the operator’s main airport asset, combined with considerably higher retail and parking revenues. Figures were also boosted by the fact that the 2015 statistics included the full consolidation of the two new group subsidiaries, AMU Holding (of the US) and Slovenia’s Aerodrom Ljubljana, which had been acquired during 2014.
However, the positive news was not reflected in the cargo traffic passing through Fraport’s many gateways in Germany and abroad during 2015. It handled 2.1 million tonnes of air freight over the course of 2015, 2.6% less than in the preceding year. The airport operator blamed “weak global trade and economic difficulties in some industrialised and emerging markets” for the decline.
As well as Frankfurt, Fraport’s international portfolio of airport interests currently takes in Delhi in India, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Lima in Peru, Hanover in northern Germany, Xi’an in central China, the Bulgarian Twin Star airports in Varna and Burgas, Antalya in Turkey and St. Petersburg in Russia. During 2015 it also signed concession contracts for the operation of 14 regional airports in Greece.