Frankfurt Airport has carried the least passengers in 36 years

Frankfurt Airport has carried the least passengers in 36 years

Frankfurt Airport handled less than 19 million passengers last year. That's at least the last 36 years. The reason is the pandemic of a new coronavirus that paralyzed air traffic. According to DPA, the operator of Frankfurt's Fraport airport, reported on Monday, the total number of passengers who used the airport's services in 2020 reached 18.8 million. Compared to 2019, this represents a decrease of 73.4 percent and the worst year in terms of passenger numbers since 1984. The airport recorded an even more significant year-on-year decline in the last month of last year, which in the "normal" period is one of the best due to travel on holidays. According to Fraport, 892,000 people passed through Frankfurt Airport in December, which is 81.7 percent less than in December of the previous year. However, the worst period was recorded between April and June, when air traffic stopped almost completely. One of the few highlights over the past year has been freight traffic for Frankfurt Airport, said Fraport Chairman Stefan Schulte. It also fell last year, but only by 8.5 percent. Schulte expects that the situation in air transport will gradually improve from the spring due to the launch of large-scale vaccination programs around the world. He estimates that the number of passengers carried at Frankfurt Airport could reach around 35 to 45 percent this year, compared to the number of passengers who used the airport's services in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.