Coronavirus Catapults Frankfurt Airport Back to 1984 Passenger Levels

Jan. 18—FRANKFURT — Passenger numbers at Frankfurt Airport slumped to levels not seen since 1984 last year due to the coronavirus crisis, the operator said on Monday.

Germany's main aviation hub processed some 18.8 million passengers in 2020, which was 73.4 per cent less than the previous year, according to a statement from Fraport.

The drop was even more pronounced in December — usually a busy month for seasonal travel — when around 892,000 people passed through the airport, down 81.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.

Between April and June, traffic came to an almost complete standstill, the company said.

"The year 2020 brought extreme challenges to the entire aviation industry," Fraport executive board chairman Stefan Schulte said.

However, he pointed to cargo traffic as "one of the few bright spots."

Cargo, including airfreight and airmail, registered a dip of 8.5 per cent year-on-year, coming in at over 1.9 million metric tons.

"Because of the recent launch of vaccination programs throughout many countries, we are optimistic that travel restrictions will be gradually lifted beginning in the spring," Schulte said, while warning that another difficult year lies ahead.

He predicted that Frankfurt Airport's 2021 passenger numbers would reach 35-45 per cent of the level seen in 2019.

___

(c)2021 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.