Fraport AG has reported group revenue up 10.7% to €1,355.4m ($1,610m) in the first six months of 2017, as retail and real estate revenue rose +11.8% to €268.2m ($318.6m), group EBITDA grew an impressive +41.6% to €420m ($499m) and passenger traffic increased strongly.

The large rise in group revenue was attributed to the relatively recent takeover of regional airports in Greece, along with Frankfurt Airport’s higher retail revenue, increased airport charges and sale of land in the Retail & Real Estate segment. The incorporation of the Lima Airport company also contributed strongly.

Describing the current global economic environment in ‘a slight upswing’, Fraport management says this follows a first quarter where growth was ‘subdued’.

Commenting on the Group’s positive operational and financial performance in the first six months of the year, Fraport AG’s Executive Board Chairman, Dr. Stefan Schulte, said: “We are looking back on a successful first half 2017. Our business areas have developed well, both at Frankfurt Airport and our Group airports worldwide.”

The striking Lima Duty Free operation in Peru is an impressive Fraport concession operated by the Dufry Group.

STRONG TRAFFIC PERFORMANCE

Fraport added that while Frankfurt Airport’s 30m passenger total reached a new record, there were also good performances from several of the group’s other numerous airport businesses around the world (see tables below).

The airports company said: “Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia’s capital welcomed some 723,000 passengers in the first six months of 2017, an increase of 20.8% compared to the same period last year.

“The 14 Greek regional airports welcomed more than 9.6m passengers, up 11.9%. Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru continued to record noticeable traffic growth of 8.4% to almost 9.7m passengers. The airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast saw combined traffic grow by 9.4% to some 1.3m passengers.

2017 BUSINESS PLAN BEING REVISED UPWARDS

“Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey registered traffic growth of 29.4% to about 9.5m passengers. Almost 7.1m passengers passed through Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg, Russia, representing a gain of 25.4%.

“Hanover Airport (HAJ) in northern Germany received some 2.6m passengers in the first half of 2017, up 4.9%. Xi’an Airport (XIY) in China continued to achieve dynamic growth, with traffic rising by 14.4% to about 20.1m passengers.”

Fraport says that based on these strong results and the further gains expected, it is now revising its 2017 business year plan to reflect an expected +5% increase in overall traffic.

The company is also anticipating added costs ahead however, taking into account the imminent takeover of Fortaleza (FOR) and Port Alegre (POA) airports in Brazil and the investment programme for both.

Fraport AG’s executive board is also expecting the group’s overall net financial debt to rise to some €1.2bn ($1.4bn) during the full year 2017, which it says is in line with the expected outlook as reported in the first quarter.

SOURCE: FRAPORT.

ABOVE: FRAPORT REVENUE BY DIVISION HY1 2017. SOURCE: FRAPORT.

SOURCE: FRAPORT.