Fraport traffic figures – April 2012: FRA’s upward trend in passenger traffic continues

Fraport AG welcomed about 4.8 million passengers at its Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base in April 2012 – up 2.8 percent year-on-year. The reporting month even surpassed the previous April peak figure set in 2011 by some 130,000 passengers – despite the fact that this year’s Easter break occurred earlier and shifted holiday traffic into March 2012.

Aircraft movements at Frankfurt declined due to the nighttime flight curfew (from 23:00 to 05:00) as well as the shorter Easter vacation period in April 2012. Thus, FRA registered 40,149 takeoffs and landings in April 2012, down 0.5 percent year-on-year. Airfreight decreased by 10.5 percent to 167,739 metric tons, while accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) dropped by 1.6 percent to approximately 2.4 million metric tons.

From January to April 2012, almost 17 million travelers used the FRA global hub. This represents a three percent jump compared to the same four month period last year. During this period, airfreight tonnage fell by 11.8 to 644,516 metric tons. Aircraft movements from January to April 2012 declined by 1.4 percent to 152,597 takeoffs and landings – due to strike-related flight cancellations and the nighttime ban at FRA.

Fraport’s five majority-owned airports around the world served a total of 7.3 million passengers in the reporting month – growing by 1.7 percent year-on-year. At Peru’s Lima Airport (LIM), traffic surged by 13.5 percent to some one million passengers year-on-year. Furthermore, LIM recently won its fifth SkyTrax Award – for the fourth consecutive year – as Best Airport in South America.

Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Riviera served 1.5 million passengers in April 2012 – a 7.8 percent decline compared to the same month last year. This drop can be primarily attributed to a stabilization of the political and social environment in North Africa, which had resulted in many international passengers shifting their travel plans to Fraport’s Turkish airport in the spring of 2011.

On the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Burgas Airport (BOJ) registered a 1.7 percent gain in traffic to almost 20,000 passengers. Meanwhile, Varna Airport (VAR) welcomed 26,182 passengers in April 2012, following the reopening of the airport after several months of reconstruction from mid-October 2011 to the end of February 2012.