Fraport traffic falls by 1%

Emily Pacey

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German airports group Fraport has recorded the first decline in passenger figures at its flagship location Frankfurt since 2003

Traffic at Frankfurtairport fell by 0.5% in January, the first decrease in passenger numbers at the location since September 2003. German airports group Fraport blamed the fall on weather-related flight cancellations and air industry labour strikes in other European countries that caused further cancellations.

Domestic traffic at Frankfurt experienced the greatest fall, dropping by 4.8%. European traffic also slipped slightly by 0.5%. Fraport said that European tourist traffic fell particularly short of expectations. However, intercontinental traffic grew slightly by 0.4%, with Asian routes climbing by 5.7%, showing the best growth of any region outside Europe.

Of the other German airports in the Fraport group, Frankfurt Hahn enjoyed an increase in traffic of 10.7% and Hanoverof 4.1%. In contrast, traffic at Saarbrücken fell by 5%.

While passenger numbers at Lima airport grew by 5.2% in January, traffic at Antalya airport continued to fall sharply, registering an 86% drop compared to the same period in 2005. Fraport has blamed the fall on disruption caused by the opening of a competing passenger terminal at the airport and claims that plans to redistribute passenger streams by summer 2006 should result in higher passenger numbers this year.

Overall, traffic at Fraport's six airports fell by 1% in January.