With some 4.1 million passengers served in November 2016, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) saw passenger traffic increase by 4.9 percent compared to the previous year, despite the Lufthansa pilot strike affecting some 345,000 passengers and almost 2,600 aircraft movements. This increase, however, was largely attributable to a base effect resulting from the cabin crew strikes in November last year. Without the two special effects, Frankfurt Airport would have achieved passenger growth of around 2 percent.
Impacted by the strike and an unfavorable timing of weekends and weekdays in November 2016, cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) contracted by 2.1 percent year-on-year to 191,461 metric tons.
Aircraft movements increased slightly by 0.7 percent to a total of 33,556 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) reached approximately 2.18 million metric tons, thus remaining almost unchanged from the previous year (up 0.2 percent).
Airports in Fraport AG’s international portfolio reported mixed results in November 2016. A total of 99,082 passengers used Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia’s capital city – an increase of 5.5 percent year-on-year. Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru continued to report growth of 7.6 percent to some 1.5 million passengers.
Combined, the two Twin Star airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast welcomed 33,280 passengers in the reporting month. While this represents a decline of 18.2 percent, it must be taken into account that BOJ is closed during November and December 2016 due to renovation works on the runway system. A total of 871,390 passengers used Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey, down 17.5 percent. Traffic at Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg, Russia, markedly increased by 19.5 percent to 952,235 passengers. In northern Germany, Hanover Airport (HAJ) saw passenger numbers decrease by 8.1 percent to 350,954 passengers in the reporting month.
Xi’an Airport (XIY) in China, by contrast, reported an increase in passenger traffic of 14.2 percent to just under 3.0 million passengers.