Fraport fiscal year 2023: Traffic growth brings records for revenue and operating result

Airport operator Fraport has concluded the 2023 fiscal year that ended on December 31 with record highs for its revenue and operating result (or EBITDA). The driver was a continued recovery in passenger numbers – particularly at the Fraport Group’s airports outside Germany. Buoyed by this trend, the Group result (or net profit) increased to €430.5 million.

Commenting on the Group’s 2023 financial performance, Dr. Stefan Schulte, CEO of Fraport AG, said: “Traffic continued to develop dynamically throughout 2023. Fraport benefited from this trend particularly because of its broad international portfolio. Our airports in the Greek and Turkish markets even achieved new passenger records in 2023. Our home-base, Frankfurt Airport, continued to experience the strongest recovery of all major German airports. However, with passenger levels at 84 percent of pre-crisis levels, Frankfurt still lagged clearly behind other European competitors.” The main dampening factor in Frankfurt were high location-related costs, with the proportion of levies and fees imposed by regulators having doubled since 2019. If civil aviation taxes and aviation security fees are raised further, as planned by the Government, airport operators in Germany will face even more challenging framework conditions that are beyond their direct sphere of influence: “The Government should change course and instead support our industry in the changeover to carbon-free operations and other important initiatives.” In response to current developments, the Fraport Group has refined its corporate strategy and is refocusing its activities for the next six years. Schulte: “By pursuing three strategic areas and by drawing on our broadly diversified international portfolio, we want to achieve further financial records by 2030, including an EBITDA of €2 billion and free cash flow of €1 billion.”

Revenue and EBITDA achieve new records

Rising passenger volumes boosted the annual Group revenue by 25.2 percent to a new record figure of €4.00 billion (2022: €3.19 billion). Adjusting for revenues resulting from construction and expansion measures at Fraport’s international subsidiaries (in line with IFRIC 12), revenue increased by 21.7 percent to €3.49 billion. The operating result or Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) also rose to a new record level, at €1.20 billion. This represented an increase of 16.9 percent year-on-year (2022: €1.03 billion). The Group result (or net profit) jumped substantially, to €430.5 million (2022: €166.6 million).

The increase in the operating result saw the ratio of net debt to EBITDA improve to 6.4 (from 6.9 in 2022). Given the Group’s continued high debt levels and ongoing investments in capacity expansions, no dividend payment is planned for the 2023 fiscal year.

Upward trend in passenger numbers continues

In 2023, passenger numbers continued to rise at most of Fraport’s global Group airports. In Frankfurt – in addition to the continuing very high numbers of leisure travelers – demand for business travel also increased gradually over the course of the year. Fraport welcomed a total of 59.4 million passengers at its FRA home-base in 2023. This was an increase of 21.3 percent over 2022 figures (but still 15.9 percent below the pre-pandemic 2019 levels). Fraport’s subsidiary airports outside Germany grew even stronger. The Greek gateways were particular standouts, recording growth of 11.8 percent over 2019 levels and thereby clearly exceeding pre-crisis numbers. Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera also achieved a new record, with an increase to 35.7 million passengers.

By contrast, cargo volumes in Frankfurt declined by 3.9 percent year-on-year to around 1.9 million metric tons during 2023. Causes included general market-based factors, such as restrictions in European airspace and weak economic growth resulting from the global geopolitical situation. Despite this difficult market situation, Frankfurt Airport was still able to hold its own against its competitors and remain Europe’s biggest and most attractive cargo airport.

Fraport’s future-focused strategy

The current 2024 fiscal year is also an anniversary one for Fraport: a forerunner of what is now a leading international aviation group was established 100 years ago in Frankfurt. In its anniversary year, the airport operator has the future firmly in its sights and is preparing for the next six years with three strategic priorities. The first of these is “Growth and sustainability”: Fraport will continue to grow and plans to be the company with the world’s best know-how for operating climate-friendly airports by 2030. Second: “Efficiency and innovation”. Optimized processes will form the basis for even more stable, resilient, and reliable flight and airport operations. These will continue to involve making targeted investments in digitization, automation, and artificial intelligence. Third: “Employer of choice”. Fraport intends to become even more attractive in the labor market to successfully attract workers amidst heightened competition. The measures being introduced as part of this new strategy will also help to achieve ambitious financial targets by 2030, namely an operating result or EBITDA of €2 billion and free cash flow of €1 billion.

Outlook

For the current fiscal year 2024, Fraport expects passenger volumes in Frankfurt to grow to between about 61 million and 65 million passengers. Group EBITDA is forecast to be between roughly €1,260 million and €1,360 million. For the Group result, the figure is expected to be between approximately €435 million and €530 million. Given the continued high debt levels and with free cash flow projected to be negative, the Executive Board expects that no dividend payment will be paid for the 2024 fiscal year either.