Net retail revenue per passenger within Fraport Group’s retail and real estate segment dropped by 3.4% to €3.37 in 2017 despite sweeping traffic gains across the airport operator’s portfolio.

 

The depreciation of various currencies against the Euro reportedly impacted spending, Fraport revealed in its fiscal 2017 results.

In addition, changes to the passenger mix had a disproportionate increase on traffic on European routes.

PAX TRAFFIC +5.6%

Notwithstanding these factors, the rise in total passenger traffic had a more positive overall impact on divisional revenue, which climbed by 5.6% year-on-year to €521.7m.

 

Retail EBITDA increased by 2.6% to €377.5m, with EBIT rising by 3.6% to €293.8m fuelled by a notable contribution (+€234.9m) from Fraport’s Greek airports.

 

Overall Group revenue hit €2.93bn – a rise of almost +13.5% year-on-year, backed by the associated rise in traffic at airports including Ljublijana, Varna, Burgas, St. Petersburg, Lima and X’ian.

 

In addition, the 14 Greek regional airports it secured in April last year collectively posted a new traffic record of 27.6m.

 

Total EBITDA surged by around 18% with operating cash flow of €790.7m (+35.6%) spurred on by progress in Greece and at hub Frankfurt Airport (FRA).

 

Passenger traffic at the German hub in particular rose by 6.1% to exceed 64.5m.

 

Dr Stefan Schulte, Executive Board Chairman, Fraport AG said: “In Frankfurt, the strategic decisions that we have taken are allowing us to benefit from considerable market growth once again and we can look back on a very strong year indeed.”

BRAZIL CONCESSIONS BOOST

Schulte adds that the Greek airport acquisitions – together with two further concessions in Brazil at Porto Alegre and Fortaleza – have acted to diversify the portfolio and entrench the Group’s longer-term growth prospects.

 

In a forward-looking statement, Fraport states it expects ‘continued, strong growth’ for the remainder of the 2018 fiscal year, with passenger volume at FRA tipped to increase to up to 68.5m.

 

Elsewhere, its airports in Antalya, Lima and X’ian are expected to return high traffic volumes once again, with single-digit growth from the 14 regional Greek airports and the two Brazil concessions.

 

Consolidated revenue is forecast to reach €3.1bn, with Group EBITDA in the range of €1,080m to €1,110m.

 

“In the current fiscal year, Fraport’s international business is focused on progressing with various expansion and construction projects in Greece and Brazil, so that we can increase capacity and enhance the travel experience of our passengers,” added Schulte.

 

“We are also continuing the demand-driven development of our infrastructure at Frankfurt Airport, and are on schedule with the construction of Terminal 3. We plan to commence construction of Pier G in the second half of 2018.”