Frankfurt Airport Increases Passenger Volume by Eight Percent in February – Strongest February Ever for Airfreight

Passenger growth at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) continued in February 2011. Compared to February 2010, passenger traffic rose by 8.1percent to 3.6 million. The cumulative figure for the first two months of 2011 shows a growth average of 6.6 percent. For the February 2011 figure the base effect of 5 percent has to be taken into consideration. In particular flight cancelations due to the pilot strike and the intense low-pressure weather system Xynthia.

FRA’s airfreight volume continued to grow by 4.3 percent to 170,564 metric tons, a new record high for a February best performance. Adding the January tonnage, the increase amounted to 6.0 percent.

Aircraft movements increased in the reporting month by 8.2 percent to just over 36,000 take-offs and landings, representing cumulative growth of 7.1 percent.

Maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) developed with a growth rate of 8.4 percent in February 2011 and 7.4 percent since the beginning of the year. Total accumulated MTOW’s reached 2.14 million metric tons in February 2011.

A similar picture emerges at the international airports of the Fraport AG Group: 5.14 million passengers at all five airports in total. Fraport’s majority-owned (including Frankfurt, FRA) registered a growth rate of 11.6 percent in February 2011 and 9.3 percent for the first two months of the year.

Lima and Antalya were once again top performers. In February 911,000 passengers used Lima airport (LIM), an increase of 21.8 percent. Antalya airport (AYT) followed with 628,000 passengers, a rise of 18.3 percent. From 1 January to 28 February Lima achieved an increase of 20 percent in passenger traffic. Antalya showed a slower growth rate of 10 percent, in the comparable period.

The two airports on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Burgas airport (BOJ) and Varna airport (VAR) handled 11,000 and 18,000 passengers respectively.

BOJ had a flight increase of 25 percent, which led, based on a narrow statistical base, to a doubling of the passenger figure.

At VAR passenger traffic stagnated, although the flight plan decreased by 10 percent.

Traffic Data Frankfurt Airport
Traffic Data Fraport Group