Frankfurt Airport records unprecedented traffic boom

Fraport AG’s Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base excelled with a new historical daily record right on the first day of August 2010 when it served 184,825 passengers. This exceeded the previous daily record set in July 2010. Never before have so many passengers used Frankfurt Airport in a single day. A total of 5.2 million passengers – up 6.6 percent year-on-year – passed through FRA in August 2010, making the reporting month FRA’s busiest August ever and the second-busiest month in the airport’s history.

Frankfurt Airport records unprecedented traffic boom

Maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) – which are comparable to maximum permissible truck weights – also recorded a new all-time high. In August 2010 MTOWs increased by 6.5 percent to 2,528 million metric tons year-on-year, besting all previous monthly results. Airfreight continued to show stable double-figure growth. With 185,372 metric tons handled or an 18.4 percent year-on-year increase, FRA recorded its busiest-ever August for freight handling. Aircraft movements also rose a strong five percent over August 2009 to a total of 41,631 takeoffs and landings.

Commenting on the latest traffic statistics, Fraport executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: “Now that we are back on a steady growth course FRA’s capacity expansion is more urgent than ever. Furthermore, our latest traffic figures underscore FRA’s position as one of Europe’s most significant international air transportation hubs.” FRA’s expansion, which is advancing on schedule, will set the course for ensuring that Frankfurt and thus Germany can share in the future growth of the aviation industry, Schulte stressed.

Among Fraport Group’s foreign majority-owned airports, Antalya (AYT) on the Turkish Riviera again topped the list for passengers served in August 2010. A total of 3.4 million passengers used AYT’s terminals in the reporting month, a 10.7 percent jump year-on-year. In Peru’s capital city, Lima Airport (LIM) welcomed 969,567 passengers, achieving particularly high growth of 23.5 percent. On Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, Burgas Airport (BOJ) served 567,048 passengers (up 15.4 percent), while Varna Airport (VAR) saw only a slight 0.6 percent year-on-year increase to 292,443 passengers.

Showing above-average growth, these airports contributed substantially to Fraport Group’s 9.6 percent rise in total passenger traffic to 10.5 million in August 2010.