Business
Fraport Traffic Figures - August 2008
Fraport Traffic Figures - August 2008.
About this update from Firering Strategic Minerals Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n\n\n\nFRANKFURT, Germany, September 11 /PRNewswire/ --\n\n- Slackening Demand, Climbing Intercontinental Traffic\n\n Frankfurt Airport (FRA) welcomed 4,916,620 passengers in\nAugust 2008, a 3.9 percent drop year-on-year. Airfreight throughput reached\n164,791 metric tons (down 5.2 percent) and airmail 6,928 metric tons (down\n9.1 percent). Aircraft movements dropped by 3.1 percent to 41,743 takeoffs\nand landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) at FRA slipped by\n1.5 percent to 2,452,026 metric tons.\n\n\n\n The slowdown in passenger demand at FRA was triggered by\nstrikes within the Lufthansa Group, which spurred many customers of\nshort-haul and feeder routes to switch to Deutsche Bahn's rail services.\nOther contributing factors include the consolidation of airlines to optimize\nmargins mainly due to the high cost of kerosene, weaker traffic demand during\nChina's visa restrictions for the Olympic Games in an otherwise strong Far\nEast market, and the cyclical decline in vacation travel. The outlook for the\nremainder of the year continues to be optimistic because of the booking\nsituation for the autumn vacation period. However, the regressive business\ntrend and the additional streamlining of airline flight offers could impact\npassenger demand in the coming months.\n\n\n\n Consolidation of airline flight services also affected the\ncargo business in August. In addition, there were capacity utilization\nproblems resulting from the economic situation - which particularly affected\neastern routes. In view of the market outlook for the rest of the year,\nairfreight throughput is currently not expected to recover rapidly. This also\napplies for aircraft movements, because the airlines have become more\ncautious in their flight schedule planning.\n\n\n\n Despite the slowdown in German and European traffic, Fraport\nis nevertheless optimistic about passenger figures for the company's most\ninteresting market segment - intercontinental traffic - which rose by more\nthan two percent. Intercontinental passengers have an extremely positive\nimpact on the value creation of Fraport AG because of their higher propensity\nto spend than other travelers. A 2.3 percent jump in the intercontinental\nsector - which accounts for 40 percent of FRA's traffic - has been achieved\nsince the beginning of this year, despite the tem...