Around 48.9 million passengers used Frankfurt Airport last year.

That is almost twice as many (97.2 percent) as in 2021. Compared to 2019, the last year before the Corona crisis, the volume is still almost a third (30.7 percent) lower, according to airport operator Fraport AG announced on Monday.

Jochen Remert

Airport editor and correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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At the beginning of 2022, the spread of the omicron variant of the corona virus caused a weaker start than initially hoped.

From March onwards, however, the number of passengers at Germany's largest airport increased significantly, as it was also said.

This growth then continued until the end of the year.

According to the information, a relaxation of the infection protection regulations and the removal of travel restrictions primarily caused a massive increase in private air travel.

During the holiday season, the airport operator recorded growth rates in the three-digit percentage range.

According to Fraport's figures, the increase in April compared to the same month last year was more than 300 percent.

All in all, the number of passengers last year increased by 40 to 50 percent compared to the crisis year 2021.

The increase in December 2022 with almost four million passengers was 46.2 percent.

At the end of the year, Fraport registered more demand for the particularly lucrative business trips.

Irrespective of this, the industry assumes that the holiday travel business will continue to play a more important role in Frankfurt than the business trip.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine and the consequences of the corona pandemic, such as disrupted supply chains, continued to have a strong dampening effect on cargo volumes.

In addition, according to Fraport, the overall economic slowdown had an additional impact on the freight result.

Cargo handling in Frankfurt fell significantly by 13.3 percent to around two million tons, a drop of 5.6 percent compared to the pre-crisis year 2019. In December alone, air freight volume fell by 19 percent to just under 160,000 tons.

All of the international airport holdings that Fraport actively manages reported significant growth in the past year.

At Antalya Airport in Turkey, passenger volume increased by 41.8 percent to around 31.1 million passengers in 2022 compared to the previous year.

Compared to 2019, however, this still means a minus of 12.4 percent.

In Ljubljana, Slovenia, the number of passengers rose by more than 100 percent compared to 2021 to a good 970,000 passengers.

Compared to 2019, this still means a minus of 43.6 percent.

The Brazilian airports in Fortaleza and Porto Alegre reportedly counted around 12.4 million passengers, an increase of 41 percent compared to 2021, but a decrease of almost a fifth compared to 2019.

In Lima, Peru, passenger numbers increased by 72 percent to around 18.6 million passengers.

In 2019, however, the volume was a good fifth higher.

At the 14 Greek regional airports, the passenger volume grew by 79.0 percent to around 31.2 million passengers compared to 2021. This volume was even 3.5 percent higher than in the last year before the crisis, 2019.

At the Bulgarian Twin Star airports Burgas and Varna, passenger numbers increased by 59.2 percent to around 3.1 million passengers.

Compared to 2019, however, this means a minus of 37.1 percent.