Frankfurt — Despite the bottlenecks this summer, the operator of Frankfurt Airport has raised its forecast for annual passenger traffic at the German travel hub.

Instead of 39 million to 46 million, 45 million to 50 million passengers are expected in Frankfurt this year, airport services company Fraport said of its home base of operations in an earnings report on Tuesday.

Thanks to the sale of its stake in China's Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, day-to-day profits, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), are also expected to be higher than previously expected at €850 million to €970 million ($867 million to $989 million), up from the previously advised €760 million to €880 million.

However, Fraport wrote down its stake in St Petersburg Airport to zero because of the sanctions imposed on Russia for its war in Ukraine. As a result, group profit this year is likely to reach only zero to €100 million instead of €50 million to €150 million.

In the second quarter, Fraport increased its revenue by a surprisingly strong 90% to €809 million compared with the same period last year, which was dominated by the pandemic.

EBITDA rose by 14% to just under €338 million, which was higher than analysts' average expectations.

However, earnings attributable to shareholders fell by more than 30% to just over €59 million as a result of the Russia writedown.

"The strong and dynamic recovery in passenger traffic poses some major operational challenges for us. Unfortunately, this also results in recurrent delays," said chief executive Schulte, referring to the present situation in Frankfurt.

"Nevertheless, with the start of the summer school vacations in Germany, we have been able to maintain stable and reliable operations ... However, there is still a way to go until we will fully meet our own quality requirements again."

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