In June 2021, passenger traffic continued to recover, despite the ongoing and widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Frankfurt Airport (FRA) served some 1.78 million passengers in the reporting month. This represents an increase of nearly 200 percent versus June 2020. However, this figure is based on a low benchmark value recorded in June 2020, when traffic was down amid surging Covid-19 infection rates.
In the reporting month, the decline in Covid-19 incidence rates and the further lifting of travel restrictions continued to positively impact traffic demand. For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, Frankfurt Airport again welcomed more than 80,000 passengers in a single day, recorded on two separate days in June 2021.
When compared with pre-pandemic June 2019, FRA registered another noticeable passenger decline of 73.0 percent in the reporting month.1 During the first half of 2021, FRA served some 6.5 million passengers. Compared to the same six-month period in 2020 and 2019, this represents a decrease of 46.6 percent and 80.7 percent respectively.
In contrast, the growth momentum in cargo traffic at FRA continued despite the ongoing shortage of belly capacity normally provided by passenger aircraft. In June 2021, cargo throughput (comprising airfreight and airmail) jumped by 30.6 percent year-on-year to 190,131 metric tons – the second highest volume ever recorded in a June month at FRA. Compared to June 2019, cargo was up 9.0 percent. This robust growth underscores Frankfurt Airport’s position as Europe’s leading airfreight hub. Aircraft movements climbed by just over 114 percent year-on-year to 20,010 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) rose by 78.9 percent to about 1.36 million metric tons in June 2021.
The Fraport Group’s airports around the world also recorded noticeable traffic growth in June 2021. At some airports, traffic increased by several hundred percent – albeit based on a sharply reduced traffic level in June 2020. Passenger numbers at all of the airports in Fraport’s international portfolio were still well below the pre-pandemic levels of June 2019.
Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) welcomed 27,953 passengers in the reporting month. At the Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA), total traffic climbed to 608,088 passengers. In Peru’s capital, Lima Airport (LIM) welcomed 806,617 passengers in June 2021.
The 14 Greek regional airports served about 1.5 million passengers in June 2021. On the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, total traffic for the Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) rose to 158,306 passengers. On the Turkish Riviera, Antalya Airport (AYT) saw traffic grow to about 1.7 million passengers. The passenger volume at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED) in Russia advanced to about 1.9 million. In China, Xi’an Airport (XIY) registered a traffic gain of 31.8 percent year on year to around 3.5 million passengers.
In summary, both AYT and the Greek airports received almost as many passengers as our FRA home-base airport in June 2021, while twice as many passengers traveled via XIY. This demonstrates the dynamic performance of Fraport’s international airport portfolio.
