(L-R) Jürgen Harrer, Head of Corporate Communications and Media Relations; Dr. Stefan Schulte Chairman of the Executive Board; Prof. Dr. Matthias Zieschang, Member of Executive Board and Executive Director Controlling and Finance.

The Fraport Group has increased its revenue by 12.2% in the past nine months to €3.393bn, confirming that its expectations for key financial figures for the current fiscal year will be in the middle of previous forecasts.

Frankfurt Airport saw a 4.9% rise in passenger numbers, thought its Q3 results were still 13% below 2019 levels – Fraport Group’s result increases by 22% to roughly €434 million – with its forecast confirmed for 2024.

9M growth in key financial figures

Fraport improved all of its key financial figures on a nine-month basis: revenue increased by 12.2% to €3.393 billion euros (9M 2023: €3.024 billion).

Group revenue adjusted in line with IFRIC 12 was €2.968bn, a 12.8% increase (9M 2023: €2.632bn).

The Group result also benefited from the strong growth seen by subsidiaries, rising by 21.6% to €434m (9M 2023: €357m).

The Operating Group result (EBITDA) rose to €1.051bn (+9.5%), almost half of which (47%) was attributable to its growth-heavy international business.

Buoyed by this positive trend, the Group result (or net profit) rose by 21.6% to €434m.

Despite these positive results, Dr. Stefan Schulte, CEO of Fraport Group, provided critical comment on the political backdrop faced by German aviation: “The location costs set by regulators are too high in Germany. They are a major reason why our home market lags behind others in Europe in terms of the recovery of passenger numbers.”

Schulte added this is having a financial impact on the Fraport Group: “We’re also feeling the effects of Germany’s limited capacity growth at Frankfurt Airport.  Over the past nine months, we’ve continued to remain around 14 percent below the passenger numbers we experienced in pre-pandemic 2019.

By comparison, we’re well ahead of 2019 figures at many of our international subsidiary airports, where we’ve set new passenger records. We’ve done particularly well at our 14 Greek airports, as well as in Antalya and Lima. We’re benefiting from this performance financially, as seen by the solid improvement in our result over the past nine months.”

Slower passenger growth in Frankfurt

In the first nine months of 2024, Frankfurt Airport increased its passenger numbers by 4.9%, to around 46.7 million (9M23 saw 44.5 million passengers), however recovery has steadily fallen away as the year has gone on; while passenger numbers increased by 10.4% in the first quarter – despite major strikes – the second quarter saw an increase of only 4.5%, and the third quarter just 1.8%.

Passenger numbers in Q324 remained 13% lower than in the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. Fraport noted a major factor behind the weakness are high regulatory costs for operations in Germany: aviation taxes, security levies, and air traffic control fees rank among the highest when compared to the competition.

Schulte noted: “Given these trends in costs, airlines are continuing to expand their offerings in other markets, where they pay lower fees to governments. Politicians in Berlin need to finally take action on this point.

In Frankfurt, we’re expecting only minimal growth during the winter schedule as a result of fundamental factors, because of this competitive disadvantage.”

Important growth came from Fraport’s international portfolio. New passenger records were achieved by its 14 Greek airports (+18.2% versus the same period in 2019 ), while its airport in Antalya on the Turkish Riviera was up 5.6% for the same period, and its airport in Lima, the Peruvian capital, was similarly up 2.7% versus the nine month period from 2019.

A challenging market

During Q324 and despite difficult market conditions in Germany, revenue rose by 11.0 % thanks to passenger growth,to €1.354bn (Q3 2023: €1.220bn).

After adjusting for revenues resulting from construction and expansion measures at Fraport’s international subsidiaries, revenue increased by 10.9% to €1.201bn(Q3 2023: €1.083bn).

Half of the approximately €60m increase that was recorded came from the international portfolio.

Fraport looking forward

Due to the current market situation, Fraport said annual passenger numbers at Frankfurt Airport are expected to be at the lower end of the 61 to 65 million passenger range.

Given the solid financial performance during the first nine months and the outlook for the fourth quarter, Fraport is forecasting Group EBITDA to be in the middle of the range, somewhere between €1.260bn and approximately €1.360bn.

Fraport also expects the Group result to be in the mid-range of forecasts, somewhere between €435m-€530m.

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