The parent company of Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Germany, as well as other airports throughout the globe, Fraport, saw a lot of positivity during the first six months of the year.
Year-to-Date (YTD) to June 2023, Fraport welcomed 26.87 million passengers throughout its locations, 29.1% more than compared to H1 2022. On average, wide-body aircraft carried 23% of the flights, with an average total load factor of 83.6%.
As such, the group earned €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) of revenue in H1 2023, resulting in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of €481.4 million ($527.5 million). That is an increase of 33.8% and 17.9% compared to the same period last year, respectively.
The overall profit was €85 million ($93.1 million), a complete turnaround from the group’s H1 2022 net loss of €53.1 million ($58.1 million), which was driven by a one-off item during the period.
“We are seeing sustained recovery in passenger demand across our portfolio of global airports,” Stefan Schulte, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fraport, said. “At our home base in Frankfurt, passenger numbers recovered to 80 percent of pre-crisis levels in the first half of 2023.”
Schulte noted that FRA should see sustained growth during the next six months of the year, “including a rise in the share of business travelers”. Meanwhile, airports that are focused on leisure travelers, continued to benefit “from the ongoing strong demand for holiday travel”.
“This is particularly true for the Greek airports, which continued to clearly surpass the levels from pre-crisis 2019 during the first six months,” Schulte concluded.
Looking forward, the group provided a more precise outlook, saying that throughout Fraport’s managed airports, passenger numbers should be in the middle of between 80% and 90% of 2019 levels. The full-year profit should be in the upper half of the range of between €300 million ($328.6 million) and €420 million ($460 million).
In total, Fraport operates 28 airports throughout the globe, with most of them (18) being in Europe, excluding Pulkovo Airport (LED) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, whose management is currently suspended due to the war in Ukraine. The company also manages Fraport USA, which develops airport concessions throughout several airports in the United States (US), including New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).