OREANDA-NEWS. In May 2014, Fraport AG's Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base served some 5.3 million passengers - resulting in an increase of 3.7 percent year-on-year and a new historical peak for the month of May. Cargo throughput (airfreight and airmail) clearly advanced by 6.9 percent to 185,626 metric tons.

"The strong development in air cargo strengthens our position as Europe's largest cargo airport. Furthermore, this underscores FRA's importance for Germany's export-driven economy and the logistics industry - thus providing a concrete competitive advantage for German business," emphasized Dr. Stefan Schulte, Fraport AG's executive board chairman.

Aircraft movements also steered a steady growth path, increasing by one percent to 42,366 takeoffs and landings year-on-year. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) rose by 3.9 percent to 2.6 million metric tons.

As for the company's international portfolio, the Group airports continued their dynamic development in May 2014. Peru's Lima Airport (LIM) welcomed nearly 1.3 million passengers, up four percent year-on-year. On the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) airports together received 181,504 passengers - a slight decline of 0.9 percent. Antalya Airport (AYT) on the Turkish Riviera received about 3.2 million passengers, up 4.5 percent year-on-year. Serving some 1.3 million passengers, Pulkovo Airport (LED) inSt.

Petersburg, Russia, achieved seven percent growth. Hanover Airport (HAJ) in the German federal state of Lower Saxony registered 476,056 passengers - a dip of 2.1 percent. Xi'an Airport (XIY) in northwestern China recorded 2.4 million passengers, a gain of 12.5 percent compared to the same period last year.