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Although the global economic crisis continues to have a firm grip on international air transportation, passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) picked up temporarily in April 2009 because of Easter holiday travel and registered a drop of only 4.7 percent year-on-year – the smallest monthly rate of decline so far in 2009. FRA served 4.26 million passengers in the reporting month. In contrast, Fraport AG registered passenger declines at FRA of 10.4 percent and 13.3 percent respectively in January and February, and still a 9.2 percent drip in March 2009.
Aircraft movements at Frankfurt decreased in April 2009 by 6.1 percent to 38,350 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) slipped by 5.4 percent. In April 2009, 135,206 metric tons of airfreight (down 25.1 percent) and 6,506 metric tons of airmail (down 11.4 percent) were registered.
From January to April 2009 a total of 15.2 million passengers used Frankfurt Airport, representing a 9.2 drop compared to the first four months of 2008. Aircraft movements declined in this four-month period by 6.4 percent to 147,104 takeoffs and landings. Airfreight throughput fell by 23.9 percent to 527,998 and airmail by 13.3 percent to 26,188 metric tons.
Fraport registered a new punctuality record at FRA in April 2009: 85.8 percent of all flight arrivals and departures were “on time”. This figure surpassed the previous April monthly record of 2004 by 2.3 percentage points, and the previous year’s figure by even 10.6 percentage points. To a large extent, this positive development can be attributed to the operational efficiencies at FRA, achieved through Fraport’s optimization initiatives in cooperation with the airlines and the German air navigation services (DFS).
Passenger traffic at Fraport’s majority-owned airports developed positively in April 2009. Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey had a one-percent gain in passenger traffic, Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru achieved growth of 13.1 percent, and Bulgaria’s Black Sea airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) grew by 62.2 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. The growth at Fraport’s foreign airports resulted in a comparatively moderate passenger decline of only 2.1 percent for the Group’s airports in April 2009.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
