Passenger growth continues noticeably compared to last year
Passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) increased noticeably in September 2022, rising by 58.2 percent year-on-year to 4.9 million travelers. Without the impact of the strike by Lufthansa pilots on September 2, Frankfurt Airport’s monthly passenger volume would have been boosted by some 80,000 travelers. Despite the school vacation period ending in all German states in September, demand for holiday travel remained high throughout the reporting month. FRA experienced particularly strong demand for flights to holiday destinations in Greece and Turkey. As a result, the number of passengers flying to these destinations even exceeded the 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Overall, Germany’s largest aviation hub maintained the dynamic growth momentum seen in the last few months. Compared to September 2019, passenger figures were still down by 27.2 percent in the reporting month.1
During the January-to-September 2022 period, some 35.9 million passengers traveled via Frankfurt Airport. This represented an increase of 127.3 percent compared to the same period in 2021, but a decline of 33.7 percent versus 2019.
Cargo traffic in Frankfurt continued to decrease by 14.1 percent year-on-year in September 2022. Factors contributing to this development included the overall economic slowdown, airspace restrictions related to the war in Ukraine, and the extensive anti-Covid measures in China. In contrast, aircraft movements climbed by 21.5 percent year-on-year to 34,171 takeoffs and landings in the reporting month. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) grew by 23.3 percent year-on-year to about 2.2 million metric tons.
The airports in Fraport’s international portfolio also continued to benefit from the ongoing recovery in passenger demand. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) welcomed 118,787 passengers in September 2022. Traffic at Fraport’s two Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) advanced to a total of 1.0 million passengers. Peru’s Lima Airport (LIM) registered about 1.7 million passengers. Fraport’s 14 Greek regional airports saw overall traffic grow to 4.8 million passengers in the reporting month – again clearly surpassing the 2019 pre-crisis levels by 7.3 percent. On the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, the Fraport Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) also achieved traffic gains, serving a total of 423,186 passengers. Traffic at Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Riviera reached about 4.4 million passengers in September 2022.
