Airport operator Fraport has reported a 66.3% year-on-year (YOY) growth in revenues to €1.34bn in the first half of this year.
The surge was attributed to the relaxation of pandemic-related restrictions that led to a recovery in passenger traffic at Frankfurt and at the group’s other airports globally.
Around 21 million passengers travelled through Fraport’s Frankfurt Airport (FRA) between January and June 2022, which is a 220% rise compared with the first half of 2021.
However, the figure is still 38% lower than passenger numbers in pre-pandemic 2019.
In June, FRA welcomed around five million passengers, thereby exceeding 75% of the traffic recorded in the same month of 2019.
Some of the operator’s Greek airports serving holiday destinations have surpassed 2019 pre-crisis passenger levels in the first half of this year.
Fraport’s stake divestment in China’s Xi’an airport company led to a total contribution of €53.7m. This was included in the balance sheet as other operating income.
The airport operator’s EBITDA was €408.3m in the first six months of 2022, up 21.8% from the prior year.
Group EBIT grew to €181.9m from €116.1m over this period.
However, the group’s financial result was negative at minus €290.8m.
This was said to be largely driven by the write-down of the €163.3m loan receivable from Thalita Trading, which holds Fraport’s interest in the operator of St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED).
Cargo volumes in Frankfurt stood at nearly one million metric tonnes during the first six months of this year, down 11.5% from the first half of 2021.
This was said to be due to the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns in China and the ongoing Ukraine conflict.
Fraport CEO Dr Stefan Schulte said: “Since March, we have been experiencing a strong upward trend in passenger traffic across our Group because people are able and eager to travel once again.
“At Frankfurt Airport, we are now expecting between 45 million and 50 million passengers for the full year 2022. Thus, this is a higher traffic volume than expected at the beginning of the year.
“Our key operating financial figures have also improved, even when adjusting for last year’s positive one-off effects such as the reimbursement we received for maintaining Frankfurt Airport’s operations during the lockdown, as well as the pandemic compensation obtained in Greece.”
