Frankfurt Airport posts $1.3 billion profit for Q4

Admin I Tuesday, March 19, 2024

 

FRANKFURT – Fraport, the company that runs Germany’s main aviation hub at Frankfurt Airport, posted record revenue and operating profits for 2023 in figures released on Tuesday.

“The driver was a continued recovery in passenger numbers – particularly at the Fraport Group’s airports outside Germany,” the company said in posting operating profits of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion).

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17%.

Chief executive Stefan Schulte set a target for operating profits in 2024 of between €1.26 billion and €1.36 billion, with further increase to €2 billion by 2030.

“Traffic continued to develop dynamically throughout 2023,” Schulte said. “Fraport benefited from this trend particularly because of its broad international portfolio. Our airports in the Greek and Turkish markets even achieved new passenger records in 2023.”

While Frankfurt Airport continued to experience recovery, with passenger levels at 84% of pre-pandemic levels, it was still lagging behind its European competitors, he said.

For 2024, Fraport expects passenger volumes in Frankfurt to grow to between about 61 million and 65 million passengers. In 2019, Fraport counted 70.6 million passengers through Frankfurt. Last year, the figure was 59.4 million.

The company is not paying out a dividend for 2023 and expects that no dividend will be paid for 2024, “given the continued high debt levels and with free cash flow projected to be negative,” it said.

Profit attributable to shareholders came in at €393 million, three times the level of 2022.