Fraport sees traffic falls but predicts hope

IN fiscal year 2008, the Fraport airport company achieved growth in revenue by 3.8 per cent. However, in absolute terms, revenue declined by 98 per cent to €2.1 billion. 
Fraport attributed the loss to the sale of Fraport’s International Consultants on Targeted Security Europe subsidiary on 1 April, 2008, and to revenue received in 2007 from finance leasing of the Airrail Center Frankfurt project. 
The group operating result reached €600.7 million, up 3.5 per cent compared to 2007, but the 2008 net profit of €180.2 million was below the previous year’s figure of €213.7 million. 
Chairman of Fraport’s executive board, Dr Wilhelm Bender, said that the strong downturn in the global economy led to declines in passenger and airfreight traffic at the group’s Frankfurt Airport home-base in 2008. Cargo throughput dropped by 2.7 per cent to 2.1 million metric tons.

At the group level, traffic development for 2008 was more positive than in Frankfurt. Peru’s Lima Airport saw airfreight volume climb by 6.1 per cent to almost 240,000 metric tons. In total, Fraport’s majority owned airports handled nearly 2.5 million metric tons of cargo (airfreight and airmail).

Fraport expects group traffic figures to drop further because of the global economic situation. At Frankfurt, the stabilisation of air traffic is expected during the third quarter. By no later than the second quarter of 2010, Bender sees a sustainable recovery trend firmly taking hold – led by renewed growth in air traffic figures around the globe.

“There is no doubt that globalisation and internationalisation of the division of labour will intensify further and this is why the world economy needs a high-performance global air transportation industry – that links the growth centres of the world together,” said Bender.

Howeer, he added that uncertainty about the economy and air traffic development currently made it impossible to quantify precisely how Fraport’s business results will develop.

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