Travel enthusiasm brings Fraport record profit in summer
The return of the travel bug brought Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport the most lucrative quarter in its history this summer. At its international airports, the Group counted as many passengers as before the coronavirus crisis, but in Frankfurt the record level of 2019 was still some way off.
Among Germany's largest airports, Frankfurt continues to be the fastest to emerge from the crisis, said CEO Stefan Schulte. Despite surprisingly good figures, the manager did not raise the bar for 2023 when presenting the quarterly balance sheet on Tuesday. However, the news was received positively on the stock exchange.
The Fraport share rose by a good three percent to 51.18 euros in the morning, making it one of the strongest shares in the MDax, the index of medium-sized stocks.
Own result exceeded
In the third quarter, Fraport increased its operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by around 14 percent year-on-year to 478 million euros. The Group therefore not only performed better than analysts had expected, but also exceeded its result from the summer of 2019 before the coronavirus crisis. Compared to the previous year, turnover increased by a fifth to 1.2 billion euros. The bottom line for shareholders was around 236 million euros, more than twice as much profit as in the previous year.
The record figures for revenue and profit were "very important in order to gradually reduce the corona-related new debt", said Fraport CEO Schulte. At the end of September, Fraport was sitting on a net debt mountain of 7.4 billion euros - over 3 billion more than before the pandemic at the end of 2019.
Passenger traffic in Frankfurt is also still a long way off the pre-pandemic level: in 2019, the peak year to date, Fraport counted 70.6 million passengers at Germany's largest airport. For 2023, the Executive Board expects around 60 to 63.5 million passengers - around 10 to 15 percent fewer than in 2019.
Delays and flight cancellations in 2022
According to preliminary figures, the shortfall was still 12 percent in October - and 17 percent in the first ten months. This was not least due to air traffic to and from China, which is only slowly recovering from the pandemic-related restrictions in the country.
In addition, Lufthansa and other airlines had planned their services more cautiously in 2023 after bitter experiences from the previous year. In 2022, staff shortages at airports and service providers had led to immense delays and flight cancellations. Fraport CEO Schulte now reported "significant progress" in the processes.
Passenger volumes at Fraport-managed airports outside Germany even returned to pre-coronavirus levels in the third quarter. The 14 regional airports in Greece and the airport in Antalya, Turkey, achieved new record figures.
The strong air traffic at Fraport's international airports contributed to its record EBITDA of 478 million euros in the third quarter, surpassing the pre-pandemic figure from 2019. In the upcoming quarterly figures presentation, despite the positive trends, Fraport's CEO did not set a high profit target for 2023.
Source: www.dpa.com
