Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services worldwide (Fraport) has released its financial results for fiscal year 2020, ending December 31. For the first time in 20 years net profit for the Group dropped into negative territory at €-690.4 million, despite the implementation of extensive cost-cutting measures.
Group revenue decreased by 54.7% year-on-year to €1.68 billion. Adjusting for revenue from construction relating to capacitive capital expenditure at Fraport's subsidiaries worldwide (based on IFRIC 12), Group revenue was down 55.4% to €1.45 billion. This was the consequence of the dramatic reduction in passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport, which fell by 73% year-on-year to 18.8 million passengers, and reductions of between 34% and 83% in passenger traffic at China's Xi'an Airport and Slovenia's Ljubljana Airport respectively to reflect the full range of reductions across all Group airports.
Fraport substantially reduced operating expenses (cost of materials, personnel expenses and other operating expenses) by nearly a third, after adjusting for the additional expenses for personnel-reduction measures. This enabled Fraport to achieve a slightly positive EBITDA (before special items) of €48.4 million in fiscal 2020, down 95.9% year-on-year. When taking into account the extra expenses of €299 million for personnel-reduction measures, Group EBITDA in 2020 fell to minus €250.6 million (2019: €1.18 billion). Group EBIT slipped to minus €708.1 million (2019: €705.0 million), while the Group result (net profit) amounted to minus €690.4 million (2019: €454.3 million).
Fraport AG's executive board chairman, Dr. Stefan Schulte, said: “We are looking back on an extremely challenging year 2020. Unlike almost any other industry, aviation has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The rollout of vaccination programs and greater availability of testing options provide the prerequisites for air traffic to rebound – starting this summer at the latest. People want to finally travel again, while airlines are ready to ramp up their capacities. At the same time, we have realigned our company to become leaner and more agile. Therefore, we will emerge even stronger from this historic crisis. As the operator of the Frankfurt Airport global hub and thanks to our Group airports worldwide, we are well positioned to fully benefit from the air travel relaunch, while our long-term growth perspectives remain intact.” (€1.00 = US$1.20 at time of publication.)
