Fraport July traffic
11 / 08 / 2008
FRANKFURT Airport served 5,067,108 passengers in July 2008, down 2.4 per cent compared to the strong July in 2007. Airfreight throughput also slipped by one per cent last month to 172,529 metric tons. However, since the beginning of the year, both passenger traffic and airfreight tonnage have continued to grow noticeably by strong rates of 1.4 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively, compared to the previous year.
The drop in passenger figures can be attributed to the weakening business environment, as well as the strike within the Lufthansa Group, without which the decline would have been about 0.4 percentage points smaller. Flight cancellations by Lufthansa, CityLine and Eurowings primarily affected domestic traffic – leading to an unexpectedly strong slide of well over 10 per cent. Intercontinental traffic continued to be the only growth market (up 0.9 per cent). Increasing 29.5 per cent, South America remained at the crest of the growth wave.
Airfreight also declined for the first time this year. The main reason for this was the general economic conditions. Furthermore, the strong euro exchange rate curbed demand for goods from Europe.
Airmail tonnage slipped by 3.6 per cent to 7,159 metric tons in July 2008, and aircraft movements dropped by 2.2 per cent to 42,728 takeoffs and landings. In addition to approximately 500 strike-related flight cancellations, this was primarily due to regular cancellations and reductions in domestic services planned during the summer holiday period.
In contract, accumulated maximum takeoff weights achieved a new July record at FRA. With 2,502,691 metric tons, MTOWs rose by 0.1 per cent year-on-year and exceeded the previous July record in 2006 by well over 3,500 metric tons. Without the strike, the increase in MTOWs would have been about one per cent higher.
The Fraport Group’s six majority-owned airports (Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Hahn, Burgas and Varna, Antalya, and Lima), together welcomed a total of 8,481,597 passengers in July 2008 (up 0.5 per cent). Fraport’s Frankfurt-Hahn low cost airport in the Hunsrück region of Germany, recorded 425,761 passengers – a gain of 3.5 per cent in the vacation month of July 2008. The Fraport managed terminals at Antalya Airport, registered 1,347,652 passengers and an 11.7 per cent surge – the highest growth rate in the group. Peru’s Lima Airport welcomed 758,508 passengers in July 2008, 6.5 per cent more than in the same month last year. With 563,594 passengers, traffic at Bulgaria’s Burgas Airport almost reached the previous year’s level (down 0.2 per cent). Also located on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Varna airport only received 319,538 passengers in July (down 10 per cent).
Cargo throughput (airfreight and airmail) at Fraport’s airports, climbed by 0.6 per cent to 210,149 metric tons in the reporting month. Aircraft movements group-wide, rose by 0.9 per cent to 70,811 takeoffs and landings.