Frankfurt Airport (FRA) welcomed some 3.37 million passengers in August 2021. This represents a 122.9 percent increase year-on-year, albeit based on a very weak August in 2020. This recovery was driven mainly by summer holiday traffic to European tourist destinations, while intercontinental traffic remained very low due to ongoing travel restrictions.
A comparison with August 2019 shows that FRA’s passenger traffic in the reporting month (down 51.3 percent) nearly reached half the pre-pandemic level.1 About 12.7 million passengers flew via Frankfurt in the January-to-August 2021 period – with the summer holiday season (June to August) accounting for some 8 million passengers alone. During the first eight months of 2021, FRA’s passenger traffic declined by 15.3 percent year-on-year, versus a 73.2 percent drop when comparing the same traffic period in 2019.
FRA’s cargo throughput (comprising airfreight and airmail) maintained its growth trend in August 2021, rising by 13.3 percent year-on-year to 182,362 metric tons. Compared to August 2019, cargo tonnage gained 5.3 percent in the reporting month. Aircraft movements climbed by 63.3 percent year-on-year to 28,897 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) increased by 55.5 percent to nearly 1.8 million metric tons.
The airports in Fraport’s international portfolio also continued to report positive traffic performance in August 2021. Most of Fraport’s Group airports worldwide achieved significant growth rates, with passenger figures at some airports rising more than 100 percent year-on-year – albeit compared to the strongly reduced traffic levels in August 2020. Compared with pre-pandemic August 2019, most of Fraport’s Group airports worldwide still registered lower passenger figures. However, some Group airports serving high-demand tourist destinations (such as the Greek airports or Antalya Airport on the Turkish Riviera) saw traffic rebound in August 2021 to approximately 80 percent of pre-crisis levels recorded during the same month in 2019.
Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) welcomed 73,056 passengers in August 2021. At the Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA), combined traffic increased to 801,187 passengers. In Peru’s capital, Lima Airport (LIM) had more than 1.1 million passengers in the reporting month.
Total traffic for the 14 Greek regional airports rose to nearly 4.5 million passengers in August 2021. On the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, the Twin Star airports of Burgas (BOJ) and Varna (VAR) also reported higher traffic with a total of 629,936 passengers served. Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey saw traffic grow to about 4.3 million passengers. St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED) in Russia received about 2.1 million passengers. At Xi’an Airport (XIY) in China, traffic slowed to around 1.5 million passengers.
1 Editorial note: For enhanced statistical comparison, our reporting of the 
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