GERMANY. A doubling of passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport in the first three months helped Fraport Group revenue climb by +40.2% year-on-year to €539.6 million and drove a +75% leap in EBITDA to €70.7 million. Due to one-off effects, the group recorded a net loss of €118.2 million.
Frankfurt Airport served 7.3 million passengers in the first three months, an increase of more than +100% compared to the same period in 2021. This was despite the continuing impact of COVID-19 as well as the initial effects on aviation from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The airports in Fraport’s international portfolio sustained their rebound in the first quarter. Most of the Fraport Group airports outside Germany gained more than +100% in traffic year-on-year during the first quarter of 2022, with the exception of the two Brazilian airports (up +68% in all), Antalya Airport in Turkey (up 82.5%) and Samos Airport in Greece (up 95.2%).
Revenue in the Retail & Real Estate segment amounted to €85.3 million (+35% year-on-year). This was due to increased retail and parking revenue (+€13.6 million and +€5.1 million, respectively) as a result of passenger growth at Frankfurt Airport.
Within this, retail revenue reached €24 million, more than double last year’s Q1 figure of €10 million but well down on the €49 million in Q1 2019. Net retail revenue per passenger reached €3.52 (down from €5.06 a year earlier).
Fraport CEO Dr. Stefan Schulte stated: “Despite the omicron virus variant and new geopolitical uncertainties, a significantly higher number of people are travelling by air again. With passenger figures rising at our airports across the group, the operating result improved significantly in the first quarter of 2022.
“For our home-base Frankfurt Airport, we remain optimistic because of the positive booking figures for the coming summer travel season. For the entire year, we expect to see between about 55 percent and 65 percent of pre-pandemic passenger volumes in Frankfurt.
“At the same time, the war in Ukraine is impacting our business as well – a war that we condemn in the strongest terms, as an unjustified attack on a sovereign state. One of the effects of this war are increasing prices, and we also are feeling the rise of inflation. Despite this, however, we continue to expect Fraport’s full-year business performance to be clearly positive. Therefore, we are maintaining our previously announced outlook.”
Under that outlook Frankfurt Airport is forecast to hit passenger volume of between about 39 million and 46 million for the full year. This represents up to 65% of the passenger traffic from before the pandemic. Fraport’s majority-owned airports worldwide are expected to achieve even stronger growth. Group revenue is projected to reach some €3 billion in fiscal year 2022. Group EBITDA is forecast to range between about €760 million and €880 million. Net profit is also expected to be in positive territory, ranging between about €50 million and €150 million.
