Fraport Traffic Figures - April 2010

The volcanic eruption beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull glacier and the resulting ash cloud that spread over European airspace brought flight operations at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to a standstill for five days during April 2010.  It took another three days for FRA's flight schedule to get completely back to normal.   For Fraport, Frankfurt Airport's owner and manager, this shutdown resulted in almost a 17 percent drop in passenger traffic year-on-year.  Thus, the FRA international hub served about 3.5 million passengers in the reporting month – the first time since April 2003 that FRA has not exceeded the four million passenger mark.   

In April 2010, aircraft movements dropped by 16 percent year-on-year to some 32,000 takeoffs and landings.  Cumulative maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) fell by 12.4 percent to almost 2.0 million metric tons.  Surging ahead by 23 percent despite the numerous flight cancellations, only airfreight tonnage continued its path of growth recovery since the beginning of the year.  In total, FRA handled 166,276 metric tons of airfreight last month. 

The flight freeze that lasted for days also impacted FRA's cumulative traffic figures for the year to date (January-to-April 2010).   Fraport still completed the first quarter of 2010 at Frankfurt Airport with a 3.9 percent rise in passenger traffic, while passenger figures in April 2010 slipped by 1.9 percent.     Due to the April 2010 flight shutdown, FRA registered 4.2 percent fewer takeoffs and landings during the past four months, compared to the same period in 2009.  MTOWs fell by 1.4 percent.  In contrast, airfreight tonnage continued to flourish at FRA by approximately 31 percent since the beginning of this year.

Commenting on the latest traffic figures, Fraport AG's executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: "The closure of European airspace over many days certainly hurt air traffic at our Frankfurt Airport home base.  However, due to Asia's robust economic development and the noticeable economic recovery here, we are confident that passenger traffic will increase by 1.0 to 2.0 percent in the current business year – if no further unforeseen incidents sharply reduce flight operations."  Schulte took the opportunity to thank Fraport staff for their personal commitment in making the situation as comfortable as possible for passengers stranded at FRA's terminals:   "This was the real challenge presented by Eyjafjalla and mastered by our dedicated staff with flying colors."  

Iceland's volcanic eruption also negatively impacted Fraport's  Group passenger figures in April 2010, which dropped by 9.6 percent to a total of 5.4 million.  The majority-owned airports of Lima (LIM), Antalya (AYT) and Burgas (BOJ) developed positively.  Group cargo (airfreight + airmail) tonnage reached about 188 million metric tons, up 20.4 percent.  Aircraft movements declined by 7.8 percent to some 51,000 takeoffs and landings.

Looking at the year to date, Eyjafjalla did not affect Fraport's Group figures negatively.  Traffic growth at FRA during the first quarter along with the positive development of the Group airports in Turkey  (AYT), Peru (LIM) and Bulgaria (VAR and BOJ) – which were unaffected by the ash cloud – offset Frankfurt's April 2010 traffic slide.  Thus, Group traffic still grew by 2.6 percent to 21 million passengers from January to April 2010.  Cargo jumped by 28.2 percent to about 777,000 metric tons.  Aircraft movements climbed by 0.9 percent year-on-year to nearly 205,000 takeoffs and landings.