Business Development

Development at the Frankfurt Site

With traffic of around 61.6 million passengers, Frankfurt Airport achieved growth of 3.7% in the 2024 fiscal year compared to the previous year. This equated to 87.3% of the pre-crisis year 2019. Strikes and weather-related flight cancellations dampened traffic growth at the beginning of the reporting year. While holiday travel traffic continued to dominate, there was also a recovery in business travel demand – albeit with subdued momentum. Domestic traffic remained below pre-crisis levels. Overall, European traffic increased by 4.2%. Warm weather destinations and city breaks were particularly in demand. Intercontinental traffic grew by 3.4% overall. Growth was driven by Far East traffic, which increased by 13.3%, mainly due to China traffic, which recorded the highest absolute increase. The rising volume of Indian destinations also contributed to this result.

Cargo volume increased by 6.5% year on year to around 2.0 million metric tons. Frankfurt Airport benefited from the increased demand for air freight driven by e-commerce and by capacity problems in maritime traffic as a result of the ongoing geopolitical crises. Compared to 2019, this nevertheless meant a reduction in tonnage of –4.8%.

With a total of 440,853 aircraft movements, an increase of 2.4% was achieved compared to the previous year. In general, 2024 was marked by fleet bottlenecks. Measured against 2019, this figure constitutes a recovery to 85.8%. Passenger flights reached a share of 84.2% compared to 2019. At 81.8%, the seat load factor was half a percentage point above 2023, and the quotient passengers per passenger aircraft movement increased by 1.2% to 152.1. The sum of the maximum take-off weights (MTOW) increased by 2.8% year on year to 27.8 million metric tons.

Development Outside the Frankfurt Site

The passenger volume at Ljubljana Airport grew by 13.3% to around 1.4 million passengers compared to the previous year. This positive development is mainly due to the launch of new connections and more frequent flights to existing destinations and major hubs.

Passenger numbers at the Brazilian airports Fortaleza and Porto Alegre in 2024 were influenced by various external factors. In Fortaleza, the number of domestic passengers decreased compared to the previous year, mainly due to the effects of the Chapter 11 insolvency proceedings of the airline GOL. International traffic, on the other hand, developed positively. The main reasons for this were high occupancy rates, an increase in frequencies on routes to Europe, and the introduction of new connections, for example to Santiago de Chile, among other factors.

Porto Alegre experienced a sharp decline in passenger numbers due to the flooding in the region. Between May 3 and October 20, flight operations were completely suspended. Flight operations to domestic destinations resumed on October 21, 2024 with capacity restrictions. On December 16, 2024, these restrictions were lifted, which also allowed the resumption of international flights. Fortaleza welcomed 5.2 million domestic passengers (–1.5%) and around 0.4 million international passengers (+45.2%) in the year as a whole. Porto Alegre recorded 3.8 million domestic passengers (-47.1%) and around 0.1 million international passengers (-66.3%).

With around 24.5 million passengers in 2024, Lima Airport reached a new record (+3.7% compared to 2019) and recorded a considerable increase in traffic compared to the previous year (+15.2%). Domestic passenger operations recorded around 14.7 million passengers (+12.2%). In the international segment, the airport recorded considerable growth in particular with the connections to South and Central America and Europe. International traffic therefore also made a positive contribution to growth with 9.8 million passengers (+20.1%).

With around 36.0 million passengers, Fraport Greece recorded an increase of around 6.4% at the 14 airports in the 2024 reporting period compared to the previous year’s figure of around 33.9 million passengers; this was a new record. During some months in the off-peak season in particular, passenger numbers were considerably higher than the corresponding previous year’s figures in some cases. The previous year’s figures were also exceeded in the important main tourist season. Overall, domestic traffic was 6.1% above the previous year’s level, while international traffic grew by 6.5%. The largest number of foreign passengers came from Great Britain (around 20%), followed by Germany (around 14%), and Italy (around 6%).

At the Bulgarian airports in Varna and Burgas, operated by Fraport Twin Star, passenger numbers declined in 2024. At around 3.4 million passengers, passenger numbers were 8.7% below the previous year’s figure. Capacity reductions at Wizz Air as well as ongoing crises resulted in a shortfall of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, and Israeli passengers. This was only partially offset by greater demand from European countries. For 2024 as a whole, there was a decline in both domestic (–4%) and international passenger numbers (–10%) compared to the previous year. Most of the passengers came from Poland (around 16%), Great Britain (around 16%), and Germany (around 15%).

Passenger numbers at Antalya Airport in the 2024 fiscal year were around 38.1 million passengers (previous year: 35.7 million). International passenger traffic showed a growth rate of 7.2%, while domestic traffic grew by 3.3%. Compared to the previous year, growth was recorded in almost all relevant international passenger groups. Passenger numbers from Great Britain and Poland recorded particularly strong growth. As in the previous year, the largest passenger groups were travelers from Germany (approximately 27%), Russia (approximately 23%), and Great Britain (approximately 11%).

Passenger traffic at the Group airports predominantly developed within the forecasts provided in the 2023 Annual Report and adjusted in the second-quarter/half-yearly report 2024. Due to the floods in Porto Alegre and the resulting temporary closure of the airport, the forecast for this Group company could not be achieved.