Traffic recovering in Frankfurt and across Fraport’s global airport network

The positive upward trend in traffic at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) continued in September when 3.1 million passengers and 188,177 tonnes of cargo passed through its facilities.

The figures represent 169% and 13.4% rises respectively on the same month a year ago, although operator Fraport readily admits that traffic levels in September 2020 were “very weak” due to the global pandemic.

Nonetheless, the monthly increases are most welcome for the German hub, with passenger growth largely driven by holiday traffic.

The latest totals mean that FRA handled 15.8 million passengers in the first nine months of 2021, a 2.2% decline on the same period last year and some 70% down on 2019 when the airport enjoyed its best ever year.

Compared to September 2019, cargo tonnage gained 7.7% in the reporting month. Aircraft movements climbed by 66.1% year-on-year to 28,135 takeoffs and landing. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) increased by 61.5% to nearly 1.8 million tonnes.

Fraport reports a similar “largely positive” September traffic story for the international airports in its global portfolio, while Xi’an (XIY) in China achieved significant growth.

And some airports serving high-demand tourist destinations – such as the Greek airports or Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera – saw traffic rebound to approximately 80% of pre-crisis levels in the reporting month compared to September 2019.

Elsewhere in Europe in September, Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia welcomed 65,133 passengers; St Petersburg (LED) in Russia handled 1.9 million passengers; and the Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) in Bulgaria welcomed 328,990 passengers between them.

While in South America the Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) handled a combined total of 820,169 passengers and Lima (LIM) in Peru accommodated nearly 1.1 million passengers during September 2021.