Almost 25 million passengers in Frankfurt in 2021 after around 70 million in the record year 2019, which sounds catastrophic in itself. But the year 2020 has shown that things can get much worse, because at that time the number of passengers at Germany's largest airport was 18.7 million, a third lower than in 2021. In view of the disastrous year 2020, the year just passed for Frankfurt so it didn't go that bad. However, the recovery that could be seen in the spring and summer was not quite as strong as the people of Frankfurt had initially hoped. Nevertheless, in the autumn, the ease of entry into the USA for fully vaccinated air travelers fueled hopes at the airport operator Fraport and at the main customer Lufthansa thatthat the demand for air travel could continue to increase rapidly overall, not only in Europe.
Stand by to seize opportunities
But the extremely rapid spread of the omicron variant has shown that, given the extremely dynamic development of the pandemic, no serious forecasts, even medium-term, are possible. The head of Frankfurt Airport, Stefan Schulte, also admits this openly. For the time being, airport operators and airlines have no choice but to fly on sight. The people of Frankfurt, like the entire aviation industry, can only be ready to take advantage of the opportunities that arise if the virus loosens its stranglehold or at least relaxes it significantly. It is simply not certain at the moment whether the new Frankfurt Terminal 3 will be needed as early as 2026. However, it cannot be ruled out that demand will increase by leaps and bounds with catch-up effects once the pandemic is under control. Then Gate G of the new terminal,which is structurally almost ready for use, but will be used before 2026. as planned before Corona. But that too is pure speculation.