At Frankfurt Airport, the number of passengers continued to rise sharply in September thanks to persistently high demand for holiday flights.
However, the recovery from the Corona low was slowed down somewhat by the Lufthansa pilots’ strike at the beginning of last month. The number of passengers rose by 58 percent to 4,9 million compared to the same month last year, which was heavily influenced by the pandemic. Without the strike by the pilots of the most important Fraport customer, there would have been around 80.000 more passengers, according to the airport operator in a broadcast.
In the first nine months, the number of passengers increased by 127 percent to 35,9 million compared to the same period last year. Compared to 2019, this is a decrease of one third. Meanwhile, cargo volume continued to decline in September. Compared to the previous year, the cargo volume fell by 14 percent to almost 162 tons. "The reasons for this are the overall economic slowdown and the further restrictions on airspace caused by the Ukraine war and comprehensive corona protection measures in China."
The international portfolio also continued to benefit from the sustained revival in passenger demand. Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia counted 118.787 passengers in the reporting month. The volume of passengers at the Brazilian airports Fortaleza and Porto Alegre rose to 1,0 million. The airport in Lima, Peru recorded around 1,7 million passengers in September. Passenger numbers at the 14 Greek regional airports rose to 4,8 million. The total traffic at Greek airports in September was again well above the pre-crisis level of 2019 (plus 7,3 percent). The Twin Star Airports Burgas and Varna in Bulgaria registered an increase to 423.186 passengers. The number of passengers at Turkey's Antalya Airport increased to around 4,4 million.