April 2002 - FRA Traffic Figures: Recovery in demand stalls in April
Frankfurt, Germany (ots)
Airfreight continued to stabilize
In April 2002, passenger figures at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) did not continue the clearly improving trend seen in previous months. Some 3.9 million passengers used Germany's busiest airport last month, 6.5 percent less than in April 2001.
One reason for standoffish demand for flights and package tours continued to be the sluggish economic development and the ensuing consumer caution. Thus, for example, all classical tourist destinations in the Mediterranean were running low in April. Long-distance travel did not improve decisively, either. Destinations in North America, the Near East and North Africa continued to be depressed. Only domestic traffic improved noticeably over the previous months.
However, May 2002 gives rise to some optimism again: Passenger levels during first two weeks of May 2002 fell only slightly short of the comparable period in 2001.
In contrast to passenger figures, airfreight activity in April continued the stabilizing trend seen since the beginning of the year. FRA handled 120,541 metric tons of cargo in April 2002, only 2.1 percent less than in the same month last year.
Airline capacity reductions at Frankfurt Airport - which set in during the 2001/2002 winter timetable season in response to declining demand after September 11 - continued into the first month of the 2002 summer season. Thus maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) dropped by 7.1 percent from April 2001 to approximately 2 million metric tons. FRA recorded 37,222 takeoffs and landings (aircraft movements) in April 2002, down 1.3 percent from the same month last year. Like in the previous months, airlines preferred to adjust to slowly recovering demand by increasing the aircraft load factor rather than raising flight frequencies and / or using larger aircraft.
Frankfurt Airport's Traffic Figures for April 2002
April Change (2) Jan. - April Change (2)
2002 April 02/ 2002 Jan. - Apri
April 01 02/01Passengers in millions
3.9 -6.5% 14.4 -5.0%
Airfreight in thousands of metric tons
120.5 -2.1% 473.6 -6.0%
Airmail in thousands of metric tons
11.4 2.3% 46.9 -0.5%
Aircraft Movements 1 in thousands
37.2 -1.3% 144.2 -2.1%
MTOWs in thousands of metric tons
1,993.3 -7.1% 7,700.7 -6.9%
Punctuality share of punctual arrivals and departures in percent
82.2 80.0
(1) Excluding military flights
(2) Rate of change based on unrounded numbers
Contact:
Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide
Robert A. Payne
Manager International Press
60547 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel. +49/69/690-78547 (with voice mailbox)
Fax +49/69/690-60548
mailto:r.payne@fraport.de
Internet: http://www.fraport.com (click on "Press Lounge")