Frankfurt Airport also expects increasing passenger numbers for the current year. “It will remain challenging,” explained the boss of the Fraport operator, Stefan Schulte, on Monday, with a view to the massive handling problems in the past year.
In 2022, the largest German airport counted 48.9 million passengers. That was almost twice as many as in the second pandemic year 2021, but still more than 30 percent fewer than in the previous record year 2019, when 70.6 million passengers were handled.
Schulte described the problems with the restart: “Lockdowns at the beginning of the year, followed by a rapidly increasing demand, demanded a lot from all process partners when operations were ramped up. The complex air traffic system often came to a standstill – including in Frankfurt.”
Leader in unpunctuality
In a European comparison, Frankfurt was one of the least punctual airports, despite interim traffic restrictions. Fraport and other service providers had not been able to provide enough staff, especially during peak travel times.
Fraport shows within its own group that operations started working again more quickly in other locations. Last year, the 14 Greek regional airports welcomed more passengers for the first time than in 2019. The Group also recorded high growth over the year at the other actively managed airport holdings compared to 2021.
In the cargo business, however, Frankfurt Airport fell well short of the figures from the second year of Corona. The volume of freight and airmail fell by around 13 percent to just over two million tons in 2022.
