Frankfurt Airport's passenger numbers have increased 423% year on year. While this may sound like a very impressive growth, it is still significantly less than what the airport is used to handling during April. While passenger numbers remain low, the airport's cargo facilities are still operating at better than pre-pandemic levels.
A year ago, the world was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. While infection numbers are much worse a year later, the world is also learning to live with the virus. As such, while aviation is far from fully recovered, it is doing much better than this time a year ago, as can be shown in Frankfurt Airport's latest figures.
423% increase in passenger numbers
Frankfurt Airport's passenger numbers in April 2020 were dismal. The airport handled 97% fewer passengers than in 2019, with less passengers using the airport in the entire month than on a typical single day in the preceding year.
While things still look pretty grim for Germany's busiest airport, they are certainly looking better than a year ago. This year, the airport saw just shy of one million passengers (983,839), representing a 423% increase on 2020s 188,078 passengers. Sadly, it's still 83.7% less than 2019's 6,039,842 passengers. With that being said, April was the first month of year-on-year passenger growth since 2018.
The good news for Frankfurt Airport is that, with the coming summer season, passenger numbers may start to recover once more. Earlier this week, Germany decided to drop its quarantine requirement for 100 countries, including most of the European Union. The airport remains partially closed. Only a portion of one terminal is open, while the north-runway remains closed, having been used as a parking place for Lufthansa Boeing 747s.
Freight exceeds pre-pandemic levels
Airports that rely primarily on passenger services saw a significant dip in cargo. This was as airlines couldn't carry cargo in the belly of passenger jets that weren't flying. Frankfurt didn't see a substantial decrease in cargo handled, as it welcomes extensive freight operations from dedicated cargo aircraft. This, in part, kept the airport as one of the busiest in Europe based on movements at the height of the crisis.
Looking at the numbers, we see that the passenger and cargo stories at Frankfurt Airport are entirely different. Not only has cargo outperformed 2020 figures every month so far this year, but it is also outperforming pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Figures were so good last month that Frankfurt set a new April cargo record with 201,661 metric tonnes (222,293 US tons), up 13.1% from April 2019.
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New cargo facilities
Lufthansa is aware of the importance of cargo to its operations. The airline delayed the retirement of some MD-11 aircraft to keep their capacity while passenger jets were grounded. The airline also converted some A330s into makeshift freighters, dubbed 'preighters' by the group's CEO, Carsten Spohr.
The airline's cargo arm, Lufthansa Cargo, is currently investing in its Frankfurt Airport facilities. Lufthansa's Frankfurt Airport air freight center is presently undergoing a seven-year modular refurbishment, which handles 80% of all Lufthansa Cargo freight.
As part of this, the airline is building a special art storage facility called ArtCube. The facility, designed to house valuable art across 168 square meters, started construction on Monday. Access to the facility will be severely restricted, hopefully preventing any art heists. The climate-controlled facility will have a separate lounge for attendants accompanying art to rest in. The new facility should be operational by the end of the year.
What do you make of Lufthansa's April traffic? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!