Regional airports outperform
The group of 14 Greek regional airports has shown the highest growth rates compared to the rest of the airports in the portfolio of the German group Fraport AG, as stated by the president of the Fraport group, Stefan Schulte during the recent annual general meeting of shareholders that took place at Frankfurt Airport a few days ago.
As he noted, with the exception of Frankfurt Airport, passenger traffic in the portfolio of Fraport’s international holdings has returned to levels last seen prior to the onset of the pandemic.
He added that the recovery is led by the 14 regional airports in Greece, which last year, compared to 2019, increased passenger traffic by 12%, to 33.8 million people. This upward trend, as estimated by the head of the German group, is expected to continue this year as well.
Indeed, during the first four months of this year, the number of passengers at the 14 airports of Fraport Greece increased by 7.3%, to 3.8 million people, on an annual basis, or by 12.5% compared to 2019. The highest increase was recorded by Skiathos Airport (15.1%), followed by those of Kavala (14.8%) and Santorini (13.3%). The group of 14 airports includes five where passenger numbers fell in the first four months compared to January-April 2023.
These are those in Aktio (-7%), Samos (-3.5%), Kefalonia (-2.7%), Mykonos (-1.3%) and Kos (-0.7%). In absolute figures, Thessaloniki’s Makedonia Airport showed the largest passenger traffic, with 1.8 million people (+7.6%), followed by the airports on Rhodes (538,600), Hania (386,100) and Santorini (294,600). At the airports managed by Fraport, the five countries from which the most passenger traffic originates are the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands.
After the Greek airports, the next highest growth rate was at Antalya Airport, which is the third largest in Turkey, with a 1% increase in passenger traffic compared to 2019. The expansion of Antalya Airport is among Fraport AG’s priority projects, launching the creation of new terminals in 2025. Its capacity will increase to 65 million passengers.
