Berlin — Ryanair and Lufthansa will drive growth at Frankfurt airport this winter, helping Germany’s largest hub boost passenger numbers by about 5% this year, airport operator Fraport said on Thursday.
Fraport had been slow to open up Frankfurt, one of Europe’s busiest and most expensive airports, to low-cost carriers. After passenger numbers dropped last year it agreed to discounts for Ryanair — angering main customer Lufthansa.
"We are also achieving solid growth in Frankfurt again, where we made the necessary strategic decisions at the right time," Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte said as the group reported third-quarter core profit in line with expectations.
Ryanair previously served Frankfurt from Hahn, about 120km away, but is expanding rapidly after starting flights to the city this year. Lufthansa is benefiting from extra demand caused by the collapse of local rival Air Berlin. Lufthansa is even using a larger 747 jumbo jet, usually used for long-haul flights, 60 times on the Frankfurt-Berlin route this month.
EasyJet, another low-cost British competitor, could also soon feature on the Frankfurt departure boards. The British airline, which plans to take on some of Air Berlin’s operations at Berlin’s Tegel airport, has been granted slots at Frankfurt, Fraport said, and these are likely to be used for flights to Berlin.
Passenger numbers at Frankfurt rose 6.3% in October, taking year-to-date growth to 4.8%, Fraport said. Low-cost carriers currently account for only 2.8% of traffic at Frankfurt. The DLR German aerospace centre said in a study last month that low-cost carriers made up 25% of traffic from German airports this summer.
Last week, analysts at Credit Suisse said Fraport had to win volumes from Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings, which it plans to grow following Air Berlin’s demise, for Frankfurt or risk losing market share in Germany. Lufthansa has said that until costs come down at Frankfurt, the group will not move Eurowings there.
While budget carriers help increase overall passenger numbers, they can have a negative impact on retail spending figures. Net retail revenue per passenger at Frankfurt dropped 4.7% to ¤3.02 in the quarter. Passengers on inter-continental routes typically spend three times as much as short-haul passengers, chief financial officer Matthias Zieschang said.
CEO Schulte said it was the right decision to open up to low-cost carriers because it was a growing market segment.
Fraport reported in-line third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of ¤387.7m ($452m). It maintained a forecast for 2017 core profit of about ¤980m to ¤1.02bn.
Fraport also increased the passenger forecast for 14 Greek regional airports that it took over this year to about 10% growth in 2017 from a previous forecast of more than 5%.
Reuters
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