Key sites

In addition to the aforementioned airports, Fraport operates retail areas at different airports in the USA through its Group company Fraport USA.

Competitive position at the Frankfurt site

Frankfurt Airport competes with other airports both nationally and internationally. Nationally, there is competition for passengers and air freight with airports in the original catchment area. Internationally, Frankfurt Airport competes for transfer passengers and freight transfer on the basis of its function as an international transfer airport. The main customer at the Frankfurt site remains the Lufthansa Group, which accounted for more than 60% of passengers in Frankfurt in the 2022 fiscal year. The largest competitors for transfer passengers are primarily the hub airports London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Istanbul, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Munich, which are also influenced to varying degrees by their resident main customers British Airways, Air France-KLM, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa Group. Due to the dynamic development of many airlines and airports from the Persian Gulf region in the past, the Frankfurt site is also in intercontinental competition with these airports. In particular, the expansion and modernization programs at the Frankfurt site contribute to maintaining and improving its international competitive position. For example, the northward relocation of the security checks in Terminal 1 will lead to a much improved transfer process. Terminal 3 (“Expansion South”), on the other hand, ensures the long-term landside capacities required to give the site a successful future-oriented competitive edge. The construction of Terminal 3 with Piers H and J, the road infrastructure, and parking garage are already well advanced. The roof of the main terminal building, for example, is fully installed, and the façade work, including glazing, is largely complete. Numerous technical installations are running inside the terminal. Pier G of Terminal 3 has been completed except for the installations that are only required for the start of operations. The opening of the new terminal is planned for the start of summer travel in 2026.

The ranking of the top 10 airports in Europe, which has changed due to the crisis, is slowly returning to the pre-crisis structure (ranking according to ACI Europe; as of: February 2023). With 48.9 million passengers, Frankfurt Airport ranked sixth among the leading airports in terms of passengers in the reporting year. The Group's Antalya Airport (31.2 million passengers) ranked tenth. In Germany, Frankfurt Airport was the largest passenger airport, ahead of Munich with 31.6 million passengers in the same period. Based on its air freight turnover of approximately 1.9 million metric tons, Frankfurt has remained Europe’s leading airport in the same period, ahead of Paris Charles de Gaulle. In Germany, Leipzig/Halle Airport was the next largest competitor, with 1.5 million metric tons of freight.

Ranking by ACI Europe (February 2022). The Leipzig/Halle Airport is not a member of the ACI Europe and so not reported in the ranking. Source: ADV (12.2021).

Competitive Position Outside the Frankfurt Site

Developments of the Group airports outside the Frankfurt site were characterized in the 2022 reporting year essentially by the subsiding of the global coronavirus pandemic and the associated restart of international air traffic. Information on traffic development at individual sites can be found in the “Business Development” chapter.

As the airport of the country’s capital, the development of Ljubljana Airport is closely linked to the economic and tourist situation in Slovenia. The gaps in the flight schedule that emerged through the bankruptcy of Adria Airways in the fall of 2019, and the destinations which were temporarily unserved due to the coronavirus pandemic, were gradually added again in the course of the recovery in traffic numbers in 2022. Alongside a large number of connections to European capitals and business sites, flights to the Middle East and an increasing number of charter flight connections to tourist regions also contributed to the appeal of the location and the airport.

The two Brazilian airports in Porto Alegre and Fortaleza served almost exclusively domestic originating traffic in 2022. The share of domestic passenger traffic was around 96% in both Fortaleza and Porto Alegre. The resumption of the LATAM hub at the end of 2021 strengthened Fortaleza Airport’s position in the market environment of northern Brazilian domestic airports in 2022. LATAM Brazil, GOL, and Azul remained the dominant airlines in 2022. Cargo volumes developed positively in Porto Alegre, particularly benefiting from the use of larger aircraft on the international routes. With the commissioning of the extended runway in Porto Alegre in the second quarter of 2022, the planned major infrastructure measures at both airports will be completed.

The Jorge Chávez Airport in Lima is Peru’s leading airport, and one of the largest airports in South America. The site profits in particular from its geographical position, which makes the airport an attractive transfer point for traffic between South and North America. At Lima airport, LATAM Airlines Group is maintaining its strong market presence and has already reestablished a large part of its fleet strength from the time before the coronavirus pandemic, thus contributing to passenger growth in 2022. Low-cost airlines, such as SKY and Jetsmart, among others, also pursued a growth strategy, thereby supporting the recovery in passenger numbers. The expansion project at Jorge Chávez Airport includes the construction of a new passenger terminal, a new runway including aprons and taxiways, as well as other peripheral infrastructure, so as to provide sufficient capacity for further growth in the South American aviation market in the future. The construction of the second runway and the air traffic control tower were already completed by the end of 2022. The concession agreement provides for the inauguration of the new passenger terminal in the first quarter of 2025.

The traffic and business developments at the strongly tourist-oriented Greek sites, at Varna and Burgas, as well as in Antalya are substantially affected by charter traffic of tourist carriers. There is generally no substantial concentration of individual airlines. In addition to the economic development in each respective country where the traffic originates, the sites depend particularly on the appeal of the respective regions with regard to safety, quality, price level, and entry requirements.

Fraport Greece operates 14 Greek regional airports. These are the airports in Kerkyra (Corfu), Chania (Crete), Kefalonia, Kavala, Aktio/Preveza, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos, Mykonos, Skiathos, Santorini (Thira), Kos, Mytilene (Lesbos), Rhodes, and Samos. The development at the Greek Group airports is mainly characterized by tourist traffic. Greece's appeal as a tourism destination offers the potential for a further increase in demand in the coming years. The ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic affected Fraport Greece only in the first quarter of 2022. The following months saw traffic recover and exceed 2019 levels overall.

The Black Sea airports in Burgas and Varna are the second- and third-largest passenger airports in Bulgaria after Sofia. In addition to charter services, low-cost transport promises further long-term growth potential. Domestic traffic accounted for around 7% of passenger traffic. Wizz Air provided the largest share of passengers by far. In the 2022 summer flight schedule, the airline stationed three aircraft in Varna and one in Burgas, and expanded its program from the two sites to 75 destinations. In negotiations with the Bulgarian government, a five-year extension of the concession period until 2046 was granted, which is intended to compensate for the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Through gradual, modular expansion measures of the terminals, both tourist sites offer sufficient capacity to meet the growth expected for the regions in the medium term.

Antalya was the second-largest passenger airport in Türkiye in the past fiscal year, behind Istanbul Airport, and remains one of the most important tourist airports in the Mediterranean region. The demand for holiday travel to the region is essential for the further development of traffic at Antalya Airport. This depends on the political and economic situation in the countries of origin of the main passenger groups as well as Türkiye. At the end of 2021, a consortium made up of Fraport and its Turkish partner TAV was awarded the tender for the new operating concession at Antalya Airport. The operational period of the new concession will start at the beginning of 2027 after the current concession expires, and will run until the end of 2051. As part of the new concession, necessary expansion measures at the terminals and other areas at the airport began in the first quarter of 2022. The completion of the main infrastructure measures is expected in 2024 and 2025. This will ensure Antalya Airport will remain highly competitive in the segment of tourist airports in the Mediterranean region in the long term.

Additional information about business development in the past fiscal year can be found in the “Economic Report” chapter.