Cargo volumes at Frankfurt Airport soared in March with 9.8 per cent growth to 205,443 tonnes, the highest monthly growth rate in six years.
Fraport, Frankfurt Airport’s operator says the growth was helped by more favourable timing of weekdays compared to weekends than the previous year and Easter falling in April this year.
Cargo, which covers freight and airmail, was up 5.8 per cent in the first three months of 2017 to 535,764 tonnes.
Other Fraport operated airports mostly good results in March, with Ljubljana up 16.1 per cent to 1,026 tonnes, though Lima was own 0.9 per cent to 18,466 tonnes.
In Bulgaria, Burgas remained stable at 887 tonnes while Varna was up 83.2 per cent to 13 tonnes.
At equity consolidated airports, Hanover was up 23.9 per cent to 1,822 tonnes and Xi’an by 4.3 per cent to 20,654 tonnes.
Fraport started its 40-year concession to manage and develop 14 Greek airports on 11 April, with Fraport Greece owning 73.4 per cent and the other 26.6 per cent controlled by Copelouzos Group.
Fraport Greece paid €1.234 billion as an upfront concession fee to the state-owned Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) and will pay €22.9 million a year to the Greek state and a variable annual fee based on 28.5 per cent of Fraport Greece’s operational profit, with actual airport ownership retained by Greece.
It will operate the mainland airports of Aktion, Kavala and Thessaloniki, and the island hubs of Kerkyra/Corfu, Chania/Crete, Kefalonia, Kos, Mytilene/Lesvos, Mykonos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos.
About €400 million will be invested in improving and expanding airport infrastructure over the next 48 months and €1 billion in long-term financing for the Greek Regional Airports project is being provided by a consortium of financial institutions.
€280.4 million will be used to finance construction projects across the 14 airports and €688 million will be used as part of the upfront concession payment to HRADF.
