(Statements from online press conference on fee increases, passenger forecast and Terminal 3; updated share price reaction)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Frankfurt Airport is still not gaining momentum after the coronavirus crisis. The operator Fraport expects just over 61 million passengers in the current year - this would be a shortfall of almost 10 million passengers compared to the record year 2019. Just a few months ago, Frankfurt was expecting up to 65 million passengers.

The news was not well received on the stock market: By Tuesday afternoon, the Fraport share had lost 2.6 percent to 48.88 euros, making it one of the weakest stocks in the MDax, the index of medium-sized stocks. Since the turn of the year, the share has lost around eleven percent.

Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte cited the high government-imposed fees and taxes for air traffic in Germany as the main reason for the slump in passenger numbers. However, Fraport itself is also planning higher take-off and landing fees for the airlines.

Recently, the race to catch up in terms of passenger numbers has been slower and slower. In the important summer quarter, Fraport counted only 1.8 percent more passengers at its home hub than a year earlier. As the Group's international investments in particular performed better, Schulte was able to present a quarterly profit attributable to Fraport shareholders of just under 380 million euros after nine months (2023: 316 million euros). Revenue grew by 12.2 percent to just under 3.4 billion euros in the nine months to the end of September.

Almost half of the operating profit (EBITDA) came from the Group's foreign investments, including in Greece and Turkey. At Kalamata Airport on the Greek peninsula of Peloponnese, Fraport is aiming for a further minority shareholding.

The state-regulated location costs in Germany are "a major reason why our home market is lagging behind in the recovery of passenger traffic in Europe", said Schulte. "The air traffic tax and the aviation security and air traffic control charges are among the highest in the competition." The Fraport CEO also expects only a slight year-on-year increase in flight capacity of around 3 percent for the winter flight schedule, which runs until the end of March.

Since 2019, these cost components for an intra-European flight with an Airbus A320 from Frankfurt have risen by more than half. On long-haul routes, the costs for a flight with a Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" to New York amounted to more than 18,000 euros, Fraport writes. This is almost three times as much as a connection from Paris.

Fraport also wants to increase its own airport charges again. Schulte confirms talks to this effect, in which a range of between 5 and 9.5 percent is being discussed. It will not be the upper end, said the manager. The fees are set by the Hessian Ministry of Economics as the state aviation authority, most recently for the year 2024.

The airlines are consulted in the process. In the first nine months of 2024, Fraport increased its operating profit in the corresponding Aviation segment by 28.8 percent to just under 176 million euros.

Schulte defended the company's own price increases, which have averaged 2.1 percent per year over the past ten years. Fraport had borne the corona losses itself and needed funds for major investments such as the third Frankfurt passenger terminal, which is scheduled to go into operation after Easter 2026.

The sometimes drastic increases in state taxes and fees are "on top of that". "It's down to the framework conditions," said the manager, also referring to the generally even weaker development at other German airports. The next federal government needs to understand this.

Thanks to the foreign airports, Fraport's top management is expecting results in the middle of the target range for this year's financial figures. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are now expected to reach the middle of the previously targeted 1.26 billion to 1.36 billion euros. Schulte is targeting the middle of the range of 435 million to 530 million euros for consolidated profit before minority interests./stw/ceb/stw