FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The return of the desire to travel after the corona crisis has given Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport the most lucrative quarter in its history this summer. In the third quarter, operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by around 14 percent year-on-year to 478 million euros, as the MDax-listed company announced in Frankfurt on Tuesday. Fraport thus not only performed better than expected by analysts, but also exceeded the result from the summer of 2019 before the coronavirus crisis. At around 236 million euros, the bottom line for shareholders this time was more than twice as much profit as in the third quarter of 2022.

For the current year, Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte continues to expect around 60 to 63.5 million passengers in Frankfurt - and thus around 85 to 90 percent of the level from the record year 2019. In the first nine months, the figure was 82 percent and in October around 88 percent. By contrast, passenger volumes at Fraport-managed international airports already exceeded the pre-coronavirus level in the third quarter. The 14 Greek regional airports and Antalya in Turkey stood out in particular. This is another reason why the Executive Board continues to expect a Group-wide operating profit in the upper half of the target range of EUR 1.04 to 1.2 billion this year./stw