Fraport’s lifted by strengthening half-year

FRAPORT’S half-year results show a strong recovery from the first half of the disastrous 2009. At more than one million metric tons, airfreight tonnage rose 32.2 per cent.

Traffic was slowed by several winter storms, strikes and the ash cloud from Iceland at the beginning of the second quarter. The airport handled 192,508 metric tons of airfreight (up 29.9 per cent) in June 2010. MTOWs hit 2,449,797 metric tons (up 4.8 per cent), while the number of aircraft movements climbed by 2.7 per cent to 41,159 takeoffs and landings.

Stefan Schulte, chief executive officer of Fraport, optimistically said: “These numbers convincingly show that the finance and economic crisis has been overcome and that the aviation industry – despite several small traffic blips – is back on track to reaching and even exceeding the results of the pre-crisis years.”

However, Schulte also criticised the German government’s decision to introduce an aviation ecological tax.

“Balancing the German federal budget is important and appropriate. But if the aviation industry has to contribute to this task – which we think is wrong because air transportation is self-financing and receives no subsidies – then the proposed ecological tax should be considerably reduced and should not cover air cargo and transfer passenger traffic. Otherwise, air transportation with its excellent global network – which is absolutely crucial for Germany’s export-driven commerce and industry – will be continuously weakened,” said Schulte.

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