Fraport traffic figures for January 2011 – Off to a flying start

Welcoming some 3.87 million passengers in January 2011 – a 5.2 percent rise year-on-year – Fraport AG got off to a flying start at its Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base. Airfreight throughput in the reporting month even hit a new January record of 169,808 metric tons. This represents a 7.7 percent surge in airfreight compared to January 2010, which at the time surpassed the previous peak January month of 2008.

FRA’s aircraft movements rose by 6.0 percent to 37,399 takeoffs and landings. With 2.27 million metric tons in the reporting month, Frankfurt Airport’s accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) exceeded the previous January record of 2008 by approximately 60,000 metric tons.

“Clearly, Frankfurt Airport holds a commanding lead as Germany’s number one aviation gateway for passenger and cargo traffic. We are very pleased by the latest ongoing traffic growth, which builds upon FRA’s absolute high level. Not only have we left the turbulent economic crisis behind us, we are now heading into a new dimension of growth. This traffic development will be strengthened by the new Runway Northwest that opens in October 2011,” explained Fraport AG’s executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte. “We are expecting noticeable growth in all traffic segments this year and at least in the medium term until 2015 – which will also result in the creation of more jobs at Frankfurt Airport.”

Fraport’s majority-owned foreign airports again contributed substantially to the Group’s traffic growth in January 2011. For example, Jorge Chávez International Airport Lima (LIM) in the capital city of Peru has recorded double-digit growth every year since Fraport took over operations there 10 years ago. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary of operating LIM, Lima Airport Partners reported soaring growth of nearly 20 percent in January 2011 when 987,247 passengers were welcomed.

Lima Airport again earned the coveted Skytrax Award as Best Airport in South America in 2010, adding to wins in 2009 and 2005. In 2009, LIM also received the Skytrax Best Airport Staff Service award. Furthermore, for the last two consecutive years LIM has been selected by the World Travel Awards as South America’s Leading Airport.

At Antalya Airport (AYT) – a popular winter destination on the Turkish Riviera – traffic grew slightly above the previous year’s level by 1.1 percent to 518,867 passengers. Burgas Airport (BOJ) and Varna Airport (VAR) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast reported noticeable passenger growth rates because of the relatively small statistical base of these summer holiday destinations and the introduction of additional weekly connections. BOJ grew by 65.1 percent to 8,325 passengers, while VAR rose by 17.1 percent to 20,334 passengers.

Fraport’s five majority-owned airports served 5.4 million passengers in January 2011, up 7.3 percent year-on-year.

Traffic Data Frankfurt Airport

Traffic Data Fraport Group