Frankfurt Airport's Traffic Report 2001: Passenger Figures Declined Only 1.6 Percent

FRANKFURT 11. ledna (PROTEXT/ots) - The collapse ininternational aviation after September 11 also affected Germany'slargest airport, but the decline in traffic figures was lowerthan first feared. Frankfurt Airport (airport code = FRA)welcomed about 48.6 million passengers in 2001, only 1.6 percentless than in the previous year. Handling almost 1.5 millionmetric tons in 2001, Europe's most important airfreight hubrecorded a six-percent decline. Airmail grew 0.1 percent to141,110 metric tons and aircraft movements slowed to 456,452take-offs and landings (minus 0.5 percent) in 2001. Maximum TakeOff Weights (MTOWs), important for determining a major portion oflanding fees, grew by almost one percent to nearly 25.6 millionmetric tons.

Passenger traffic slumped heavily after the terrorist attacksin the U.S. However, the trend in monthly passenger traffic atFrankfurt Airport is encouraging -- the decline seems to havebottomed out. Compared to the corresponding month in 2000,October registered a 13.9 decline in passenger traffic. InNovember passenger traffic recorded a 10.9 percent drop. InDecember there was only a single-digit decline in passengerfigures, namely 7.9 percent.

These figures for 2001 show that FRA was less affected thanother German airports by the collapse in passenger figures.During crisis periods, the aviation industry always responds bystrongly consolidating activities at the major hub airports;airline capacity adjustments and route cancellations haveincreased transfer traffic and the share of wide-body aircraft atFRA.

Fraport AG's traffic statistics show that July 2001 was FRA'speak month last year for aircraft movements, with 41,092 take-offs and landings. The absolute peak day of 2001 was on June 28,when 1,395 aircraft movements were registered. The peak hours ofthe year occurred on both July 29 and September 26, when FRAhandled 98 take-offs and landings within a 60-minute period.These figures are only slightly below historical peak values.

Frankfurt Airport's punctuality performance increased lastyear, too. The share of punctual flights at FRA -- which, amongother things, are affected by existing capacity constraints --reached 76.3 percent in 2001, up from 75.5 percent in 2000 and63.4 percent in 1999.

Frankfurt Airport's Traffic Figures for 2001 and December2001

Jan.(Dec. 2001

Change (2) December Change (2)

2001/2000 2001

Dec. 01/Dec.00 Passengers

48.6

-1.6 %

3.2

-7.9 % in millions Airfreight 1,494.1

-6.0 %

123.5

-9.1 % in thousands of metric tons Airmail

141.1

0.1 %

13.7

-5.6 % in thousands of metric tons Aircraft

456.5

-0.5 %

33.8

-3.9 % Movements (1) in thousands MTOWs

25,564.5

-0.8 % 1,878.1

-6.8 % in thousands of metric tons Punctuality

76.3

70.6 share of punctual arrivals and departures in percent1 Excluding military flights.2 Rate of change based on unrounded numbersots Original Text Service: Fraport AGInternet: http://www.presseportal.deFor More Information, Please Contact:Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services WorldwideAttn: Robert A. Payne - Manager International Press60547 Frankfurt am Main, GermanyTel.: +49 69 690 -78547 (with voice mailbox)Fax: +49 69 690 -60548 / E-Mail: r.payne@fraport.deInternet: http://www.fraport.com (click on "Press Lounge")

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