Nuremberg Airport continues its growth trajectory

3.93 million passengers from the Nuremberg metropolitan area and beyond used Albrecht Dürer Airport for their journeys in 2023. This means that the passenger volume grew by 19.9 per cent compared to 2022 and was only 4.4 per cent below the annual result for 2019. "This means that we are back at full strength for the people and the economy in the region," says Managing Director Dr Michael Hupe. In the reporting year, sales of around 100 million euros were generated at Group level (previous year: around 81.5 million euros).

The year 2023 was characterised by consistently stable demand for the first time since the pandemic. The summer flight schedule offered more than 60 destinations, while the aircraft load factor was almost 82%. "This means that the load factor has reached an all-time high," says Dr Hupe. "People want to be mobile and, together with our partners, we offer them the opportunity to do so."

Traffic development

With the start of the 2023 summer flight schedule, the passenger volume of 2019 was exceeded across the board, with established and new employees providing customers with a relaxed take-off experience. The gap caused by the lack of domestic German traffic was compensated for by successful acquisitions in the tourism sector. For example, the airlines Marabu and Eurowings have both stationed an aircraft at Nuremberg Airport since winter 2023. Both had already expanded their commitment in the summer. In addition, Corendon Airlines and SmartLynx, on behalf of TUI Germany, were also represented with a stationed aircraft in Nuremberg. SunExpress also performed very strongly on the routes to Antalya and Izmir.

Scheduled traffic increased by 28.3 per cent in passenger volume in 2023 compared to 2022, which was mainly due to growing low-cost traffic and a stable, year-round offering. Although the routes to Vienna operated by Austrian Airlines and to Zurich operated by SWISS were discontinued for the 2023 winter flight schedule, KLM took the opportunity to increase its capacity to up to four daily departures to the Amsterdam hub.

The flourishing low-cost traffic remained a trend at the Nuremberg location: over 1.8 million passengers were transported in this segment in 2023, with Ryanair alone counting over 1.28 million passengers in 2023. Alongside Ryanair, the Hungarian Airline Wizz Air is the second most important low-cost carrier with destinations in south-east Europe, followed by Pegasus Airlines.

In 2023, 50,363 aircraft movements took place at Albrecht Dürer Airport, around 4.3 per cent more than in the previous year. Due to the economic situation and the stabilisation of supply chains, flown air freight fell year-on-year from 5,584 to 4,464 tonnes, while freight transported by truck fell from 94,475 to 81,495 tonnes.

Economic development

At corporate level, sales revenue of 100.3 million euros (previous year 81.5 million euros) was achieved, an increase of around 23 per cent. The increase is due to the sharp rise in air traffic, which also benefited the non-aviation segment with the airport's own shops and the car park business.

The Group closed the 2023 financial year with a negative result after taxes of -2.89 million euros, which corresponds to an improvement in earnings of 9.75 million euros compared to the previous year.  In addition to an improved operating result, this significant improvement in earnings is also due to one-off effects such as income from the energy price brake, the reversal of various provisions and the sale of older vehicles well above book value.

Cash flow in 2023 totalled 10.4 million euros, 9.3 million euros above the previous year's level. This means that all investments totalling 8.7 million euros could be made from the cash flow.

The airport as an employer

As at 31 December 2023, the FNG Group employed a total of 1,079 people (previous year: 1,003). "Our thanks go to our dedicated employees. Their tremendous commitment and dedication made it possible for flight operations to run smoothly even during the challenging summer months," said Dr Hupe.

Travellers also give the airport team a good report card: In an analysis by HolidayCheck, which analysed over 1.48 million reviews on Google and elsewhere, Nuremberg Airport was ranked first in Germany and among the top 10 in Europe.

Prospects for 2024

Nuremberg Airport is aiming for around 4.1 million passengers in 2024. Transfer passengers will be distributed between the hubs in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt with Lufthansa and, increasingly, Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. In the tourism sector, the increased involvement of Eurowings is particularly noticeable, enriching the flight schedule with new, attractive destinations such as Rome and Nice. In total, more than 20 airlines regularly fly to the airport on scheduled and charter flights.

Annual report 2023

The Annual Report 2023 with further facts and figures as well as a 5-year overview is available at http://airport-nuernberg.de/de/ueber-uns (german)