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Monthly Traffic Results Frankfurt Airport

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With a passenger count of over 6.7 million (+1.3 %) a new record was set for the month of September at Frankfurt Airport. There were about 84,000 more passengers than in September 2018. At the start of the fall school vacation period there were over 240,000 passengers on the 27th of September. This level was surpassed for the second time in 2019 (once before on June 30).

Consequently, there was a growth rate for 35 months in a row. However, growth dynamics slowed down quite noticeably. This was mainly due to less demand for air travel on flights to and from other airports in Germany (-5.4 %). There were heavy declines connected to flights to and from Munich (less passengers due to better passenger services (flights) for intercontinental air traffic) and Berlin (fewer offered passenger services (flights)). Passenger services (flights) to and from Hamburg stagnated. There was only growth for flights to and from secondary airports.

Despite the beginning of the fall school vacation period at the end of September there was only moderate growth connected to European traffic (+1.7 %). Traffic to and from destinations in Northern Europe was down by 4.8 %. In contrast, traffic to and from destinations in Southeast Europe was up by 8.2 %. The bankruptcy of Wow Air and possibly a "Greta effect" explain the decline of traffic to and from Northern Europe. Southeast Europe (specifically Greece and Turkey) profited from the shift of tourism traffic streams.

Intercontinental traffic (+2.8 %) achieved the highest growth dynamics. Traffic to and from Africa continued to expand (+9.5 %) and this was mainly based on the recovery of travel to and from tourism destinations in Egypt. Far East traffic stagnated. Less passenger services (flights) were offered to and from Japan (discontinuation of the Osaka connection). Traffic to and from China, India and Singapore continued to grow.

In September 2019 air cargo traffic was down significantly (-5.5 %) to about 174,800 mt. There was one less high-volume Saturday and one additional low-volume Monday compared to Sep 2018. This unfavorable fact had a negative impact of about 1 percentage points on the overall result. Airfreight at 168,000 mt was down by 5.7 % and airmail down by 1.7 % to about 6,800 mt.

World trade continued to weaken in September 2019. The big industrial nations USA, China, Germany and Japan experienced a decline of their export business. The euro industrial sector slipped further into a crisis, specifically Germany. This development impacts air cargo traffic because the amount of outbound industrial goods (i.e. automotive products) has declined significantly.

The weakness of demand is also to be seen by the continued weak utilization of offered cargo capacities at Frankfurt Airport. The offered capacity was slightly down. The demand to transport cargo was down substantially. Consequently, the utilization rate was below that of September 2018. Taking a look at the regional distribution one notices that only the small traffic regions Africa (Egypt +56.1 %), Southeast Europe (Turkey +7.2 %) and South Asia (+12.0 %) were on the plus side. Most all other regions remained on the minus side.

The trade conflict between China and the USA is showing an increased impact on direct traffic between Frankfurt and these markets. In September 2019 the USA traffic was down by 3.6 % and the China traffic by 7.3 %. The threat of the upcoming Brexit had the effect that the tonnage transported between Frankfurt and Great Britain dropped by 43.2 %. However, this traffic only makes up 1 % of the total tonnage so that the absolute declines are by far not that extreme.

In September 2019 the count of takeoffs and landings was up by 1.7 % to 46,713 aircraft movements compared to September 2018. A new record was achieved for a September month (760 more aircraft movements than in September 2018). For the first time there were over 1,600 aircraft movements on a single day in the history of the airport (11 and 13 SEP 2019). One reason for this was the International Automobile Fair in Frankfurt.

The count of flights to and from other airports in Germany was down by 1.1 %. This is due to less passenger services (flights) being offered to and from Berlin. Remaining European traffic was up by 1.9 %. This growth is solely connected to South, Southeast and West Europe. The passenger services (flights) connected to North and East Europe declined. The biggest declines are connected to Great Britain, Sweden and Russia. The major growth generators in September 2019 were Italy, Turkey, Ireland, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

There were 1.8 % more intercontinental passenger flights in September 2019 compared to the same month in 2018. Africa was once again the growth generator (+6.0 %). The highest growth rate of offered passenger services was connected to Ethiopia and Egypt. The count of flights connected to North America was up by 0.9. %. Latin America (Dominion Republic) was down by 3.6 %. Traffic to and from Asia was up by 1.9 % compared to September 2018. This growth was based on more flights to and from Mumbai (India), Tel Aviv (Israel) and Hong Kong.

In September 2019 freighter aircraft flights were up by 3.0 % compared to the same month in 2018. European freighter aircraft traffic was up by 0.6 percentage points. Intercontinental connections reported a decline of 3.8 %. Whereas freighter aircraft connections to and from America (mainly Mexico) were up by 2.8 % the connections to and from Asia experienced a decline of 2.4 %.

MTOWs in September 2019 were approx. 2.85 million tons and 1.4 % above the count in September 2018. Consequently, a new record was reported once again for the month of September. There were about 38,000 more tons this year than in September 2018.
Compared to the aircraft movements, MTOM developed below average. This is explained by the increased amount of non- commercial traffic due to the International Automobile Fair in Frankfurt. The average MTOM per aircraft landing dropped to 122.1 t.

Since the offer of passenger services (flights) in September 2019 increased more than the count of passengers, the seat load factor fell by 0.7 % to 82.8 %. The quotient passengers pro passenger aircraft movement was slightly down to 153.4.

Special Information

The seat load factor in September 2019 was at 82.8% versus 83.4% in the same month last year.

The share of widebody aircraft was at 20.8% (September 18: 20.8%).

The ratio 'passengers per passenger flight (sheduled & charter)' was at 153.4 vs. 153.7 in the same month last year. Compared to the same month last year the flight punctuality rate increased by 4.9%-points and was at 71.2%.

Passengers January to September 54,192,711 2.3%

The passenger count at the end of September 2019 was over 54.1 million passengers. There were 1.2 million passengers more than during the first nine months of 2018. This was a new record for the first nine months in the history of Frankfurt Airport. During the year growth dynamics have slowed down due to the weakened expansion of the German and world economies.

During the first nine months of 2019 the passenger count increased by 3.0 %. During the third quarter of the year the growth rate slowed down to 1.3 %. In all months of the year 2019 there were new passenger count records for every single month. In April 2019 the passenger count passed the 6 million level for the first time. With 6.9 million passengers in the month of July Frankfurt Airport had the highest passenger count for a single month in its history.

The continued growth led to higher passenger counts for a single day. At the start of the summer timetable it was normal that there were over 200,000 passengers each day. There were over 200,000 passengers on almost 60 percent of all days so far in 2019. On two days there were 2 days with over 240,000 passengers. The record for a single day was set on June 30, 2019, with 241,228 passengers at the airport.

With these continuous records the current growth phase has lasted for three years now. Without disturbance events (strikes and bad weather conditions) the growth rate for the first nine months would have even been 2.8 %. Strikes, bad weather conditions and technical problems at German Air Navigation Services prevented about 260,000 passengers so far in 2019 from flying as they had planned.

The weakness of domestic air traffic continued to intensify as the year progressed. Up to September the monthly declines added up to -2.4 %. Almost all connections to and from other airports in Germany experienced a declining amount of passengers. Only Hamburg (-0.1 %) and Berlin (+0.7 %) had a balanced result. However, since August traffic to and from Berlin is experiencing a major decline of demand due to fewer passenger services (flights) being offered.

Up to the end of September European traffic has increased slightly above average. Only Southeast Europe (+8.7 %) experienced remarkable growth due to a shift of travel streams to and from South Europe. Turkey was up by 12.4 %. Greece continued its upward trend (+8.3 %). Destinations in South Europe were up by only 1.9 %. The Balearic Islands reported a remarkable growth rate of 16.8 % due to an increased number of offered passenger services (flights).

All other European traffic regions did not experience any noticeable growth. Due to the bankruptcy of Wow Air and Flybmi traffic to and from North Europe was down by 2.2 %. Demand for air travel on high volume routes to and from destinations in West Europe increased below average due to less travel to and from Great Britain and Austria.

Intercontinental traffic was once again the growth generator (+3.4 %) so far this year. Africa (+10.2 %) experienced enormous growth due to the recovery of tourism destinations in North Africa and more offered passenger services (flights). Traffic to and from Asia only experienced weak growth. The main reason for this was the fact that fewer passenger services (flights) were being offered to and from Japan. However, this was well compensated by more passenger services (flights) being offered to and from China, Korea, India and Singapore.

Aircraft Movements
Maximum Take Off Weights / MTOW (t)
January to September January to September
392,549 1.7% 24,252,866 1.9%

During the first nine months of 2019 there were 392,549 takeoffs and landings. This adds up to 1.7 % more aircraft movements than during the same period in 2018. This is a new record for Frankfurt Airport and approx. 6,500 more aircraft movements than during the same time in 2018. There were new records for the months March through September. The growth rate would have even been 2.3 % higher had it not been for flight cancellations due to bad weather conditions, strikes, software problems at German Air Navigation Services and drones.

During the first nine months of 2019 the MTOWs increased by 1.9 % to 24.3 million tons. This is another new record at Frankfurt Airport. The previous record set in 2018 was exceeded by about 442,000 tons. Without the flight cancellations due to the reasons mentioned above there would have been a growth rate of 2.2 %. The average MTOM per aircraft landing during the first nine months of 2019 was123.6 t and slightly above the level in 2018.

In comparison to 2018 the summer timetable offered more passenger services (flights) and this stimulated passenger demand. Consequently, the quotient passengers per passenger aircraft movement during the first nine months of 2019 was 147.4 and 0.6 % above the rate for the same period in 2018. The seat load factor increased in comparison below average. It was 80.1 % and only 0.1 percentage points above the rate for the same period in 2018.

Domestic passenger flights stagnated overall. During the first quarter of 2019 there were still increases of frequency rates connected to Berlin. After that there were declines. The growth of European traffic (+1.6 %) slowed down significantly. Traffic to and from North Europe declined. Concerning West Europe the decline connected to Great Britain was offset by Ireland and France. There were growth rates for Italy (Milano, Trieste), Turkey, Spain (Palma) and the Ukraine.

Intercontinental passenger aircraft flights increased by 3.1% during the first nine months of 2019. There were positive growth rates for all regions. The high-volume market North America accomplished a big plus of 2.9 %. This also had to do with increased frequencies for flights to and from Denver, Austin and New York. There was growth in Middle America due to new connections to Mexico and Costa Rica. This offset the declines due to fewer passenger services (flights) being offered to and from the Dominion Republic.

Traffic connected to Africa was up by 8.0 %. During the first nine months of 2019 twice as many connections were set up to Central Africa compared to North Africa. Traffic to and from Asia also experienced growth. It was up by 1.8 % compared to the same time period in 2018. This was also due to the new connection with Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Mumbai (India) as well as Hongkong. This more than offset the shift of the connection to Osaka (Japan) which now operates out of Munich.

The count of freighter aircraft flights at Frankfurt Airport increased by 3.1 % to 16,541 during the first nine months of 2019. This was above average compared to passenger aircraft flights. Since demand was well behind the available capacities the count for airfreight per freighter aircraft flight (58.6 t) dropped 5.2 % below the 2018 count.

Contrary to passenger aircraft flights, the amount of offered freighter flight services connected to Europe was up by 7.4 %. The offers for intercontinental traffic were up by only 1.6 %. There were also more services offered for North and Middle America. However, this was offset by declines connected to Asia (Middle East and Central Asia). India was clearly positive.

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This press release was sourced from Frankfurt Airport on 14-Oct-2019.