Frankfurt Airport traffic in 2023 still well below pre-Covid levels

Passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport remained well below the level seen before the coronavirus pandemic, despite significant growth last year.

Airport operator Fraport counted around 59.4 million passengers transiting Frankfurt, Germany's largest and most important aviation hub.

That figure was an increase of more than 20% over the previous year, according to an announcement on Tuesday from the company.

However, the passenger total remains nearly 16% below the record-setting figures from 2019, the last full year before the pandemic struck.

Fraport chief executive Stefan Schulte had recently expected around 60 million passengers. Schulte said he also does not expect a return to pre-crisis levels in 2024, either.

In December, Fraport counted around 4.6 million passengers in Frankfurt, only 6% fewer than in December 2019.

However, Frankfurt-based Lufthansa, the airport's biggest carrier and Fraport's largest customer, is again planning for a smaller number of flights in 2024 than in 2019, partly due to bottlenecks in personnel and aircraft.

In the cargo business, Fraport recorded around 1.9 million tons of freight and airmail in Frankfurt last year, almost 4% less than in 2022.

Fraport blamed the decline on weak economic conditions, global geopolitical crises and restrictions on European airspace.

However, cargo traffic picked up again towards the end of the year, with cargo volumes rising in November and then jumping by 7.2% year-on-year to 171,118 tons in December.