Passenger traffic increases at Frankfurt airport

Passenger traffic at Frankfurt airport rose to 5.5 million in May, which was an increase of 6.9 per cent on the same month last year.

Fraport, which operates Germany’s main hub, said that last month’s figures were boosted by strong leisure demand to southern European destinations, as well as by the early Whitsun holiday during May.

But despite this increase, Frankfurt’s passenger numbers were still 11.8 per cent below the figures recorded in May 2019. Traffic at the airport for the first five months of year climbed by 8.5 per cent year-on-year to 23.1 million passengers.

The German airport’s post-Covid recovery has lagged other major European hubs over the past two years – by comparison, London Heathrow last week announced its best-ever passenger figures for May (7.2 million), as well as catering for 81 million passengers during the past 12 months.

Frankfurt saw increased traffic in May to most regions, with an especially high rise to Asia, which was up by 17.9 per cent year-on-year due to strong demand for flights to China and India.

But passenger numbers to Africa were flat compared to the previous year, while there was a 13.4 per cent fall in traffic from Frankfurt to the Middle East, which Fraport attributed to the “political situation” in the region.

Fraport also operates airports in Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Brazil and Peru. Group-wide traffic increased by 6.3 per cent year-on-year to reach 15.8 million passengers in May.