FRANKFURT 14.05.2002 (PROTEXT) -
Airfreight continued to stabilize
In April 2002, passenger figures at Frankfurt Airport (FRA)did not continue the clearly improving trend seen in previousmonths. Some 3.9 million passengers used Germany's busiestairport last month, 6.5 percent less than in April 2001.
One reason for standoffish demand for flights and packagetours continued to be the sluggish economic development and theensuing consumer caution. Thus, for example, all classicaltourist destinations in the Mediterranean were running low inApril. Long-distance travel did not improve decisively, either.Destinations in North America, the Near East and North Africacontinued to be depressed. Only domestic traffic improvednoticeably over the previous months.
However, May 2002 gives rise to some optimism again:Passenger levels during first two weeks of May 2002 fell onlyslightly short of the comparable period in 2001.
In contrast to passenger figures, airfreight activity inApril continued the stabilizing trend seen since the beginningof the year. FRA handled 120,541 metric tons of cargo in April2002, only 2.1 percent less than in the same month last year.
Airline capacity reductions at Frankfurt Airport - which setin during the 2001/2002 winter timetable season in response todeclining demand after September 11 - continued into the firstmonth of the 2002 summer season. Thus maximum takeoff weights(MTOWs) dropped by 7.1 percent from April 2001 to approximately2 million metric tons. FRA recorded 37,222 takeoffs and landings(aircraft movements) in April 2002, down 1.3 percent from thesame month last year. Like in the previous months, airlinespreferred to adjust to slowly recovering demand by increasingthe aircraft load factor rather than raising flight frequenciesand / or using larger aircraft.
Frankfurt Airport's Traffic Figures for April 2002
April
Change (2) Jan. - April Change (2)
2002
April 02/
2002
Jan. - April
April 01
02/01 Passengers in millions
3.9
-6.5 %
14.4
-5.0 % Airfreight in thousands of metric tons
120.5
-2.1 %
473.6
-6.0 % Airmail in thousands of metric tons
11.4
2.3 %
46.9
-0.5 % Aircraft Movements 1 in thousands
37.2
-1.3 %
144.2
-2.1 % MTOWs in thousands of metric tons
1,993.3
-7.1 %
7,700.7
-6.9 % Punctuality share of punctual arrivals and departures in percent
82.2
80.0
(1) Excluding military flights
(2) Rate of change based on unrounded numbers ots OriginalText Service: Fraport AG Internet: http://www.presseportal.deFor More Information, Please Contact: Fraport AG FrankfurtAirport Services Worldwide Attn: Robert A. Payne - ManagerInternational Press 60547 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel.: +49 69690 -78547 (with voice mailbox) Fax: +49 69 690 -60548 E-mail:r.payne@fraport.de Internet: www.fraport.com (click on "PressLounge")
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