Lufthansa, Ryanair to drive Frankfurt passenger numbers this winter

BERLIN: Airport operator Fraport expects passenger numbers at Frankfurt airport to rise around 5 percent this year, with Lufthansa and Ryanair set to bring the strongest growth in destinations and passenger volumes this winter.
Fraport has been wooing low-cost airlines to boost passenger numbers, although a row has broken out with its largest customer Lufthansa over discounts offered to Ryanair. The two are currently in talks over ways to bring down costs for Lufthansa, which also owns an 8.4 percent stake in Fraport.
Passengers numbers at Frankfurt rose 6.3 percent in October, taking year-to-date growth to 4.8 percent, Fraport said as it reported in-line third-quarter core profit.
“We are also achieving solid growth in Frankfurt again, where we made the necessary strategic decisions at the right time,” Fraport Chief Executive Stefan Schulte said in a statement.
Still, low-cost carriers currently account for only 2.8 percent of traffic at Frankfurt. The DLR German aerospace center said in a study last month that low-cost carriers made up 25 percent of traffic from German airports this summer.
Fraport on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of €387.7 million, in line with the average estimate in a Reuters poll.
However, net retail revenue per passenger at Frankfurt dropped 4.7 percent to €3.02 in the quarter, which Fraport said was partly due to the euro’s strength against some currencies but also because it saw a stronger increase in European traffic in the period. Customers on European routes tend to spend less than long-haul passengers.
Fraport maintained a forecast for 2017 core profit of about €980 million to €1.02 billion. Analysts on average expect €1.013 billion, down 3.9 percent on last year.