In July 2022, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) welcomed more than 5.0 million passengers in a single month for the first time since the start of the pandemic – representing an increase of 76.5% compared to July 2021. The upward trend was driven by the ongoing rise in demand for holiday flights. Germany’s largest aviation hub thus maintained its rapid growth momentum – despite a one-day strike by Lufthansa ground staff in late July resulting in some 100,000 passengers less for the reporting month. FRA’s passenger traffic in July 2022 was still 27.4% below the level registered in pre-pandemic July 2019.
Cargo volumes in Frankfurt continued to drop by 18.1% year-on-year in July 2022. As in the previous months, cargo was still affected by airspace restrictions related to the war in Ukraine and the extensive anti-COVID measures in China. In contrast, aircraft movements climbed by 26.9% year-on-year to 35,005 take-offs and landings in July 2022. Accumulated maximum take-off weights (MTOWs) increased by 31.9% year-on-year to over 2.2 million metric tonnes.
Across the Group, the airports in Fraport’s international portfolio also continued to benefit from ongoing passenger recovery. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) served 124,685 passengers in July 2022. In Brazil, combined traffic at the two airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) rose to 1,187,639 passengers. Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru registered some 1.7 million passengers. At Fraport’s 14 Greek regional airports, total traffic advanced to 5,912,102 passengers. As a result, combined traffic figures for the Greek airports clearly surpassed pre-crisis levels in July 2022, rising by 11.1% versus July 2019. The Fraport Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) on the Bulgarian Riviera saw an overall traffic increase to 745,223 passengers. At Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, passenger numbers grew to over 5.0 million travellers in July 2022.
