After the travel boom in the summer, the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport is preparing for a weaker development in the coming months. In view of the corona pandemic, Fraport is assuming a "difficult winter" before business will be significantly stronger again next year, CEO Stefan Schulte told journalists in Frankfurt on Thursday evening. In August, the group counted around 3.2 million passengers in Frankfurt, at least about half as many as in August 2019. In September and October, however, things should go back towards 40 percent of the pre-crisis level.

Schulte also expects greater fluctuations in passenger numbers in the future.

So there will be much stronger summers and much more traffic on the weekends than before.

Conversely, business will be weaker in winter, and there will also be days with noticeably less traffic during the week.

Therefore, the company has to build “significantly more flexibility” into its operations.

That would probably also have consequences for the employees' working hours.

The Fraport share listed in the MDax rose slightly in morning trading to a good 55 euros.

Within a year it is 47 percent up.

However, the statistics show a three-year minus of 29 percent - a consequence of the steep fall in spring 2020, when it fell from just under 70 euros to a good 30 euros as a result of the swelling corona pandemic and the first lockdown.

More business trips again

The main reason for the fluctuations is the different development of business and private travel.

According to Schultes, more business trips are likely to take place in the upcoming winter than during the peak of the pandemic a year earlier.

However, private travel will then be absent, as many people are unsettled about the further development of the number of infections.

Schulte assumes that Frankfurt Airport will again exceed the mark of a good 70 million passengers from the record year 2019 in a few years. However, he expects a significant change in the business structure. This is how the strongest growth will come from vacationers and other private travelers. Schulte said it will take significantly longer until the business customer segment reaches its old size again. "That won't be 2025, 2026 either."

While Frankfurt Airport continues to suffer from the slump in business travel and long-distance flights, things are going much better at Fraport's airports abroad. The airports in Greece and Turkey are already back at 70 or 80 percent of the pre-crisis level, said Schulte. Mainly private travelers are on their way there. Therefore, Fraport's international airports should emerge from the crisis more quickly and deliver more than half of the Group's results in the next few years.

In Frankfurt, Fraport is preparing for future growth with the construction of the third passenger terminal.

The shell of Terminal 3 is "more or less finished," said Schulte.

“We will - I am also confident of this - actually need this capacity at some point.” However, the management board has already postponed the commissioning to the year 2026 - and hopes that the passenger numbers will recover accordingly by then.

Pier G, which is intended for low-cost airlines, should even be ready by the end of 2021 and, according to Schulte, could actually go into operation next year.

However, he assumes that Fraport will also take this until 2026.

"But we can switch it on at any time beforehand."