GERMANY. Fraport Group today revealed the impact of COVID-19 on passenger traffic in 2020. Frankfurt Airport served 18.8 million passengers, a fall of -73.4% compared to 2019.
After a sharp decline in mid-March, traffic plummeted by up to -98% between April and June. Following a slight traffic recovery in the third quarter of 2020, a new rise in coronavirus infection rates led to intensified travel restrictions. This resulted in passenger numbers falling sharply once again in September and remaining low for the rest of the year and into 2021.
Fraport AG Executive Board Chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: “The year 2020 brought extreme challenges to the entire aviation industry. In Frankfurt, passenger volumes dropped to a level last seen in 1984.”
Looking forward, Dr. Schulte said: “Because of the recent launch of vaccination programmes throughout many countries, we are optimistic that travel restrictions will be gradually lifted beginning in the Spring. Therefore, we expect Frankfurt’s passenger traffic to rebound noticeably in the second half of 2021. Nevertheless, we have to realise that a difficult year lies ahead of us. While we are confident passenger traffic will exceed last year’s level, we still expect Frankfurt to reach only 35-45% of the 2019 level.”
Other airports in the Fraport Group portfolio also recorded a sharp decline in passenger traffic during 2020 due to travel restrictions and temporary closures at several, notably Ljubljana, Antalya and Lima.
Traffic at Ljubljana Airport fell by -83.3% last year to 288,235 passengers. The Brazilian airports of Fortaleza and Porto Alegre together received about 6.7 million passengers, representing a -56.7% decrease year-on-year. Lima Airport reported a -70.3% slide in traffic to around 7 million passengers.
With 8.6 million passengers in 2020, the 14 Greek regional airports experienced a -71.4% plunge in traffic. Combined traffic at the Twin Star airports of Varna and Burgas on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast decreased by -78.9% to about 1 million passengers.
Antalya Airport in Turkey registered a -72.6% decline in traffic to about 9.7 million passengers while St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport saw traffic drop by -44.1% to about 10.9 million.
In China, Xi’an Airport achieved a slight recovery in the course of the year, following a strong reduction in traffic during the Spring. In 2020, the airport registered about 31 million passengers – a -34.2% decrease year-on-year, with December traffic down by only -14.8%.
