FRAPORT’S AIRPORTS ENJOY A GOOD FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR

The Fraport Group reports that its global portfolio of airports enjoyed a good first half of 2019, with passenger traffic rising at the bulk of its gateways.

Arguably, St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport was the pick of the bunch, based on a 10.3% rise in passenger numbers at the Russian gateway during the first six months of the year.

Next up in terms of rising traffic figures was Antalya Airport in Turkey, which handled 13.2 milion passengers (+8.1%) in the first six months of the year.

Between them the two Brazilian airports of Porto Alegre (POA) and Fortaleza (FOR) registered a half yearly rise in throughput of 8.5% to 7.4 million passengers, while both Lima Airport in Peru and X’ian Xianyang Airport in China saw their passenger numbers increase by 6.2% to 11.3 million and 22.9 million respectively.

Elsewhere, Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia handled 859,557 passengers (+3.4%) and Fraport’s 14 Greek gateways welcomed 10.9 million (+2.7%) between them.

Its only airports to experience a downturn in throughput during the half-year of 2019 were its Bulgarian airports of Burgas and Varna, which saw passenger numbers decline by 12.9%.

Fraport attributes the dip in their fortunes to ‘market consolidation’ after three years of solid growth.

At home in Germany, home hub Frankfurt Airport handled 33.6 million passengers (+3%) during the first six months of 2019, during which time aircraft movements were up 2.1%.