Some 3.4 million passengers travelled via Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in February 2023 – a surge of 60.9 percent compared to the same month last year.
Passenger Growth Remains Strong
Without the impacts of a one-day public-service strike and the disruptions caused by an IT outage at Lufthansa in the morning of February 15, FRA would have counted some additional 167,000 passengers in the reporting month, corresponding to an increase of around 69 percent. Compared to pre-pandemic February 2019, FRA’s passenger traffic was still down by 25.0 percent in February 2023.
Cargo traffic in Frankfurt (comprising airfreight and airmail) continued to decrease by 11.0 percent year-on-year in February 2023. As in the previous months, the decline was attributable to the overall economic slowdown and the discontinued air traffic to/from Russia. FRA’s aircraft movements climbed by 21.7 percent year-on-year to 27,182 takeoffs and landings in the reporting month. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) grew by 18.0 percent year-on-year to about 1.7 million metric tons.
Fraport’s Group airports worldwide also continued their growth momentum in February 2023. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) served 64,896 passengers in the reporting month (up 70.2 percent year-on-year). At Fraport’s two Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA), traffic grew slightly to a combined total of 861,418 passengers (up 2.9 percent). Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru registered some 1.5 million passengers (up 21.9 percent).
The 14 Greek airports saw traffic rise to 558,902 passengers overall (up 42.5 percent). Combined traffic at Fraport’s Bulgarian Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) jumped by 93.3 percent year-on-year to 86,750 passengers in February 2023. Traffic at Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Mediterranean coast increased to 814,783 passengers (up 37.5 percent year-on-year).