Fraport traffic figures – January 2015: Passenger growth continues

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) has started off the year with continuing passenger growth.  In the reporting month of January 2015, Germany’s largest aviation hub served more than 4 million passengers – up 1.3 percent year-on-year – due primarily to rising intercontinental traffic.  Despite the jump in passenger traffic, aircraft movements at FRA dropped by 2.6 percent to 34,611 takeoffs and landings.  In contrast, accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) climbed by 2.6 percent to about 2.2 million metric tons.  The trend towards deployment of larger, more efficient aircraft and denser seating capacity per aircraft is continuing.  Thus, the average MTOW per aircraft movement grew significantly from 121.4 to 127.9 metric tons year-on-year.  Cargo throughput at the beginning of the year is always dependent on the timing of the Chinese New Year festivities.  The Chinese New Year occurs in February this year, versus January in 2014.  As a result, cargo (airfreight and airmail) dropped slightly by 0.8 percent to 159,740 metric tons.

Group airports, in which Fraport holds an equity stake, also reported a positive start to the New Year.  Only Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) registered a downturn:  with traffic slipping by 2.9 percent to 73,096 passengers in January 2015.   In the Peruvian capital, Lima Airport (LIM) welcomed 1,367,608 passengers and reported growth of 8.4 percent year-on-year.  Combined, the Fraport Twinstar airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast received a total of 34,718 passengers in January 2015 – representing a 27.2 percent surge in traffic.  On the Turkish Riviera, Antalya Airport (AYT) served 692,138 passengers – a gain of 12.9 percent.  At St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED) in Russia, January traffic rose by 4.4 percent to 872,813 passengers.  In northern Germany, Hanover Airport (HAJ) achieved a 3.8 jump in passenger traffic.  At China’s Xi’an Airport (XIY), traffic rose by 7.6 percent to 2.4 million passengers in January 2015.