Record revenues and EBITDA for global airport operator Fraport in 2023

Global airport operator, Fraport, today announced record highs for revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for fiscal year 2023.

The key driver, it states, was a continued recovery in passenger numbers – particularly at the Fraport Group’s airports outside of Germany.

Buoyed by this trend, the Group result (or net profit) increased to €430.5 million.

Commenting on the Group’s 2023 financial performance, Dr Stefan Schulte, CEO of Fraport AG, said: “Traffic continued to develop dynamically throughout 2023. Fraport benefited from this trend particularly because of its broad international portfolio.

“Our airports in the Greek and Turkish markets even achieved new passenger records in 2023. Our home-base, Frankfurt Airport, continued to experience the strongest recovery of all major German airports. However, with passenger levels at 84 percent of pre-crisis levels, Frankfurt still lagged clearly behind other European competitors.

“The main dampening factor in Frankfurt were high location-related costs, with the proportion of levies and fees imposed by regulators having doubled since 2019. If civil aviation taxes and aviation security fees are raised further, as planned by the government, airport operators in Germany will face even more challenging framework conditions that are beyond their direct sphere of influence.

“The government should change course and instead support our industry in the changeover to carbon-free operations and other important initiatives.”

In response to current developments, the Fraport Group has refined its corporate strategy and is refocusing its activities for the next six years.

Schulte said: “By pursuing three strategic areas and by drawing on our broadly diversified international portfolio, we want to achieve further financial records by 2030, including an EBITDA of €2 billion and free cash flow of €1 billion.”

Revenue and EBITDA achieve new records

Rising passenger volumes boosted the annual Group revenue by 25.2% to a new record figure of €4 billion (2022: €3.19 billion). Adjusting for revenues resulting from construction and expansion measures at Fraport’s international subsidiaries (in line with IFRIC 12), revenue increased by 21.7% to €3.49 billion.

The operating result or Group EBITDA also rose to a new record level, at €1.20 billion. This represented a near 17% increase year-on-year (2022: €1.03 billion). The Group result (or net profit) jumped substantially, to €430.5 million (2022: €166.6 million).

Upward trend in passenger numbers continues

In 2023, passenger numbers continued to rise at most of Fraport’s global Group airports. In Frankfurt – in addition to the continuing very high numbers of leisure travellers – demand for business travel also increased gradually over the course of the year. As a result, Fraport welcomed a total of 59.4 million (+21%) passengers at its FRA home-base in 2023.

Fraport’s subsidiary airports outside Germany grew even stronger. The Greek gateways were particular standouts, recording growth of 11.8% over 2019 levels and thereby clearly exceeding pre-crisis numbers. Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera also achieved a new record, with an increase to 35.7 million passengers.

By contrast, cargo volumes in Frankfurt declined by 3.9% year-on-year to around 1.9 million tonnes during 2023. Causes included general market-based factors, such as restrictions in European airspace and weak economic growth resulting from the global geopolitical situation.

Fraport’s future-focused strategy

Fraport notes that it has the future firmly in its sights and is preparing for the next six years with three strategic priorities.

The first of these is ‘growth and sustainability’ and basically involves the company continuing to grow along with the ambition to become known for having “the world’s best know-how for operating climate-friendly airports by 2030”.

The second strategic strategy is ‘efficiency and innovation’. This is described as the optimisation of processes that will “form the basis for even more stable, resilient, and reliable flight and airport operations”. It notes that “these will continue to involve making targeted investments in digitisation, automation, and artificial intelligence”.

Its third strategic goal is to become an ’employer of choice’ by making itself even more attractive in the labour market to successfully attract workers amidst heightened competition.

Outlook

For the fiscal year ahead, Fraport expects 2024 to end with 61 million and 65 million passengers passing through Frankfurt and for Group EBITDA is to be somewhere between €1,260 million and €1,360 million.