Passenger numbers at Frankfurt Airport, the main travel hub in Germany, continued to rise strongly in September due to sustained high demand to holiday destinations.
However, the increase at one of Europe's busiest airports was slowed by the strike of Lufthansa pilots at the beginning of last month.
The number of passengers rose by 58% to 4.9 million compared to the same month last year, which was heavily impacted by the pandemic, airport operator Fraport said in Frankfurt on Friday.
Without the strike by the pilots of Fraport's most important customer, there would have been about 80,000 more passengers.
"Despite the end of the summer vacations in all German states, vacation destinations remained very popular through the end of the month," a statement from the company said.
"From Frankfurt, destinations in Greece and Turkey in particular were in high demand and above 2019 levels."
Nevertheless, total passenger traffic remained well below pre-pandemic levels. The number of passengers handled was still 27.2% below September 2019.
In the first nine months, the number of passengers increased by 127% year-on-year to 35.9 million, he said. But compared to 2019, that's a drop of one-third, Fraport said.
Meanwhile, cargo volumes continued to decline in September. Cargo volumes fell 14% year-on-year to just under 162,000 metric tons. Fraport cited an overall economic slowdown, airspace restrictions due to the war in Ukraine and China's stricht Covid lockdowns.
