November 2003 - FRA Traffic Report: Frankfurt Airport Records Noticeable Increase in Passenger Figures Again / Passenger and Cargo Volumes Continue Climbing to Record Levels
Frankfurt/Main, Germany - In November 2003, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) served about 3.8 million passengers or five percent more than in the corresponding month last year. Thus, FRA's noticeable recovery in demand is continuing unabated and is moving towards the record level of 2000. With 4.6 million passengers and a 2.4 percent growth rate in October 2003, Fraport AG (the Frankfurt Airport company) registered the best October in the airport's history. High growth rates were recorded particularly on intercontinental routes to North America, the Far East and Africa. Holiday traffic also showed strong growth in November 2003: for example, to the Caribbean, Egypt, Greece, Portugal and Turkey.
For the January-to-November 2003 period, FRA's passenger volume of about 44.9 million slipped only 0.4 percent below the previous year's figure. "Nobody expected such positive traffic development following the effects of the Iraq war and SARS," said Dr. Wilhelm Bender, executive board chairman of Fraport AG. Bender is expecting passenger traffic for the entire year to decline by no more than 0.5 percent. "This success is also a result of the high level of professionalism and commitment from all of our employees," said Bender.
Frankfurt Airport also experienced a healthy jump in airfreight activity in November 2003. The amount of airfreight tonnage handled at FRA in the reporting month grew by 3.2 percent to 147,110 metric tons. Expansion of cargo services to Asia, Central and South Africa, as well as Central America fueled the strong growth. For January-to-November 2003, FRA handled more than 1.4 million metric tons of airfreight, a two percent increase over the same period in 2002. Airmail volumes at FRA declined again in November 2003, dropping by 12.3 percent to 11,275 metric tons. Above all, this was caused by a further reduction in services in the domestic overnight airmail network based at Frankfurt Airport.
Aircraft movements fell slightly below last year's level. Frankfurt Airport recorded 37,538 take-offs and landings in November 2003, down 0.4 percent from the same month last year. Maximum take-off weights (MTOWs) climbed 1.3 percent to about 2.1 million metric tons.
Frankfurt Airport's Traffic Figures for November 2003
| November 2003 | Change(2) Nov. 03/ Nov. 02 | Jan. - Nov. 2003 | Change(2) Jan. - Nov. 03/02 | |
| Passengers | 3,760,779 | 5.0% | 44,844,365 | -0.4% |
| Airfreightin metric tons | 147,110 | 3.2% | 1,416,040 | 2.0% |
| Airmailin metric tons | 11,275 | -12.3% | 113,879 | -10.5% |
| Aircraft Movements(1) | 37,538 | -0.4% | 423,355 | 0.2% |
| MTOWs(1)in metric tons | 2,068,911 | 1.3% | 23,393,504 | 2.0% |
| Punctualityshare of punctual arrivals and departures in percent | 78.6 | 78.1 |
(1) Excluding military flights
(2) Change over previous year