Airport operator Fraport achieves record results | tagesschau.de

Although passenger volumes in Frankfurt are still below pre-Corona levels, Fraport is making progress. With a view to the location conditions, the airport operator is calling for a “political U-turn”.

Significantly fewer passengers are still flying out of Frankfurt Airport than before the corona pandemic. But the numbers are rising again. Last year, the airport operator Fraport earned more in day-to-day business than ever before.

Fraport announced that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose by 17 percent to 1.2 billion euros. Annual sales also reached a new high of 4.0 billion euros after 3.2 billion euros in 2022.

Passenger numbers this year below pre-Corona levels

While the Greek and Turkish airports owned by Fraport achieved passenger records, the largest German airport only recovered to 84 percent of its pre-crisis level with 59.4 million passengers. In 2019, Fraport counted around 70.6 million passengers in Frankfurt.

But this doesn’t seem to be due to increasing “flight shame”. The reason for the slow recovery is the high location costs caused by rising taxes and fees, explained Fraport boss Stefan Schulte. These have doubled since 2019. Schulte still expects 61 to 65 million passengers to fly to Frankfurt this year.

“Political U-turn” called for

With the planned increase in the aviation tax and the aviation security fee, the general conditions in this country are further deteriorating, said Schulte. “The industry needs a political U-turn in order to be able to manage important projects, such as the switch to CO2-free operations,” demanded the Fraport boss.

The bottom line is that the MDAX-listed company increased profits by 160 percent to 430.5 million euros. However, the shareholders should continue to forego a profit distribution. Because of the high level of debt built up during the Corona crisis, the group does not want to pay a dividend for 2023 or 2024.

For the current year, in which the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Schulte is targeting a result of between 1.26 and 1.36 billion euros. By 2030 it is expected to rise to two billion euros. These prospects and the waiver of dividends were met with disappointment on the stock market.