For the first time in the history of Frankfurt Airport, May passenger traffic exceeded the five million mark, an airport spokesman said.

In previous years, this peak usually started in July. With 5.04 million passengers in May 2011, Frankfurt Airport achieved year-on-year growth of 5.8 per cent. This growth rate falls within the four to seven per cent range already forecast by Fraport for the entire year of 2011, remarked the spokesman.

Aircraft movements at FRA rose by 3.6 per cent to 43,207 takeoffs and landings in the reporting month. Maximum takeoff weights grew at a similar rate of 3.1 per cent to 2.57 million metric tons.

The strong statistical effect from May 2010 resulted in airfreight tonnage dropping by 7.9 per cent in the reporting month.

Last year, Frankfurt reported a 39.7 per cent jump in airfreight tonnage in May – primarily at the beginning of May 2010 due to the large amount of unshipped cargo following the European ash cloud crisis.

The Fraport Group’s majority-owned airports continued to report steady traffic growth in the reporting month. Antalya Airport in the Turkish Riviera registered the highest traffic volume last month, with 2.7 million passengers and year-on-year growth of 10.5 per cent.

Almost reaching the 1,000,000 passenger mark, Peru’s Lima Airport welcomed 971,815 passengers and recorded even stronger growth of 15.5 per cent in May.

The Bulgarian Black Sea airports of Varna and Burgas increased faster in May 2011 and for the year to date. This can be attributed mainly to the stronger growth in hotel capacity in the southern coastal region served by Burgas.

Fraport’s majority-owned airports (including FRA) received a total of some 8.9 million passengers in May 2011, up 8.1 per cent year-on-year.