Fraport AG (FRA.DE,0O1R.L,FPRUF.PK), the owner and operator of Germany's Frankfurt Airport, said Wednesday that the urgent need for a third terminal at the airport has been confirmed by two independent institutes. The company noted that additional terminal capacity at the airport is required at the latest by the year 2021.
Presenting the results of studies by the two institutes, Intraplan and Mkmetric, on Frankfurt Airport's forecast passenger growth up to 2030, Fraport noted that both the institutes have forecast that passenger volumes at the Frankfurt Airport or FRA global aviation hub will rise to between 68 million and 73 million passengers by the year 2021. Thus, the airport's current terminal capacity of 64 million passengers per year will be exceeded by 2021.
The MKmetric institute expects that passenger traffic at Frankfurt Airport will rise to 68.2 million by 2021 and might reach 75.7 million by 2025. Meanwhile, Intraplan's forecasts indicate that passenger figures will rise to 72.9 million and 78.0 million, for the same years respectively.
Dr. Stefan Schulte, executive board chairman of Fraport said, "Both of the independent expert studies - which validate our existing internal capacity planning - clearly show that the construction of Terminal 3 is urgently needed. Only with Terminal 3 will we be able to continue offering our customers the quality and service that they rightly expect from a leading international airport like Frankfurt."
According to the long-term traffic forecast of the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, air passenger figures in Germany will rise by 2.5 percent annually until the year 2030.
In another study commissioned by Fraport, the consulting firm Netherlands Airport Consultants or NACO concluded that additional terminal capacity will be required to ensure smooth operations at Frankfurt Airport once passenger numbers have reached the 64 million mark.
Fraport noted that passenger volumes of up to 68 million and more that is forecast by the institutes for the year 2021 would have a massive impact on airport operations and impair the overall quality as well as competitiveness of Frankfurt Airport.
According to the company, at times, FRA is already reaching capacity limits for check-in facilities at peak traffic periods during the summer holidays. The situation is similar for security, passport and custom control channels.
Fraport said it has examined various alternatives to the new Terminal 3 for creating additional terminal capacity and aircraft docking positions. However, the results of these assessments have showed that all examined alternatives are far from being viable or suitable to meet future requirements.
Fraport estimates construction costs for the new Terminal 3 to range between 2.5 billion euros and 3 billion euros. This includes all ancillary infrastructure measures such as access roads and parking lots.
In early September, Fraport said that FRA achieved a new monthly passenger record in the month of August by exceeding the six million passenger mark for the first time in a single month. The airport welcomed 6.113 million passengers in August, up 5.4 percent from the same period last year.
On Frankfurt's Xetra, Fraport shares are currently trading at 52.42 euros, up 0.35 euros or 0.67 percent on a volume of 26,647 shares.
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