July Brings More Traffic Through 14 Greek Regional Airports

Mykonos Airport.

Traffic through 14 regional Greek airports picked up pace in the first half of the year boosting performance for Fraport Group, which cited exemption of fixed concession fees (in Greece) and the increase in summer traffic for the positive news.

More specifically, according to the group’s interim report for the first half 2021, traffic has rebounded “noticeably” with the company’s 14 airports in Greece (run by Fraport Greece) and its airport of Antalya, Turkey having outperformed the group’s other facilities when compared to pre-Covid-19 levels.

The 14 airports Fraport Greece operates are: on the mainland – Thessaloniki, Aktion, and Kavala – and on the Greek islands – Crete (Chania), Corfu, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos.

July performance

For the July 5-11 period, a total of 561,000 passengers went through Greece’s 14 regional airports marking a 313 percent increase against 84 percent last year.

Over the July 26-August 1 period, the same airports handled 812,100 international passengers, up by 76 percent against pre-Covid 2019 and 153,200 domestic travelers, up by 81 percent.

Zakynthos Airport.

Revenue generated at the Fraport-run Greek airports in H1 came to 43.7 million euros against 78.4 million euros in H1 2020.

Losses were down by 9.5 million euros over 67.4 million euros 2020.

In the second quarter of the year, revenues came to 30.4 million euros, compared to 27.6 million euros in Q2 2020 up by 10.1 percent.

Company gains came to 32.2 million euros up from 37.7 million euros in losses in the same quarter last year.

The pandemic, however, is still keeping air traffic down with the company estimating that 50 percent of 2019 levels will be achieved this year.

Corfu Airport.

Overall, compared to the record figures in H1 2019, the German group registered an 80.7 percent drop in traffic in H1 2021. At Fraport Group airports worldwide, traffic also grew noticeably in June 2021, but overall traffic for the first half remained well below the previous year’s level.

Group revenue dropped by 10.9 percent to 810.9 million euros in H1 2021.

The Greek state has agreed to waive the fixed concession fees for Fraport based on passenger traffic. The company was also granted a temporary suspension of the payment of the variable concession fee which translated into a positive impact of 69.7 million euros in H1 2021 on Fraport’s other operating income and group EBITDA.

Greek lawmakers also approved compensation to Fraport (under the concession agreement) for losses incurred in 2020 at the group’s 14 Greek airports due to the pandemic.