Fraport Traffic Figures – September 2024: Continued Growth for Passenger Numbers and Cargo Volumes

Frankfurt Airport welcomes 5.8 million passengers in September / Growth of 4.9 percent compared to the first nine months of 2023 / A total of 19.4 million passengers in September

Frankfurt Airport served some 5.8 million passengers in September 2024, a 1.2 percent increase on the same month in 2023. Domestic traffic grew by 1.3% and European traffic by 2.6%. In contrast, intercontinental traffic was slightly negative at minus 1.1%. The main reason for this was the Middle East crisis, which led to a decline of 27.8% in this region. The continued very dynamic growth to America and the Far East (China: 30.4%, Singapore: 19.9% and India 11.7%) was unable to compensate the decrease. The current monthly figure still lags behind 12.9% from the 2019 passenger figures¹.

Cumulative traffic over the first nine months of the year amounted to around 46.7 million passengers. This corresponds to an increase of 4.9% compared to the same period in 2023 and a decrease of 13.8% compared to 2019.

Cargo volume grew by 3.5% in the month under review compared to the same month in 2023, amounting to 169,478 tons. The number of flight movements rose by 0.4% to 39,802 take-offs and landings. The total maximum take-off weight increased by 0.4% to around 2.5 million tons compared to the same month in the previous year.

Most airports in Fraport’s international portfolio also recorded passenger growth last month. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) registered a 11.0 percent surge to 155,801 passengers. In contrast, the two Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) experienced significant declines, with combined figures falling by 44.1 percent year-on-year to 593,264 passengers. The drop was mainly due to the suspension of flight operations at POA since May 3 as a result of the heavy flooding in the Port Alegre region. Currently, a contingency schedule is in place for POA, with only a limited number of domestic flights being operated from a nearby military base. Elsewhere in Latin America, some 2.1 million passengers traveled via Peru’s Lima Airport (LIM) in September 2024, a notable increase of 13.2 percent compared to the same month last year. Fraport’s 14 Greek regional airports reported passenger growth of 3.7 percent year-on-year, with a total of 5.3 million travelers. In Bulgaria, the Fraport Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) saw a 3.2 percent year-on-year decline in combined traffic, to 470,642 passengers. On the Turkish Riviera, however, traffic at Antalya Airport (AYT) increased slightly by 2.1 percent year-on-year to around 5.0 million passengers.

Total passenger numbers at all airports actively managed by Fraport rose by 0.7 percent year-on-year to about 19.4 million passengers in September 2024.