GERMANY. Media Frankfurt, the marketing arm of Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport, has reported burgeoning airport advertising revenues following a sharp rise in passenger numbers as COVID-19 vaccination programmes accelerate in Europe.
June passenger figures for the airport – the third busiest in Europe in pre-pandemic times – were up +200% year-on-year as all of Frankfurt’s terminals reopened. Traffic reached 1.78 million with a peak of 80,000 plus on some days.
The encouraging numbers have fuelled a resurgence in advertising space revenues, according to Media Frankfurt Sales Director Peer Schmitz-Kuo, who highlighted new advertising campaigns for Gerolsteiner, Haribo and Ritter Sport.
He said: “With the reopening of Terminal 2 in particular and the advertising spaces there, we have been able to throw open many doors to our regular customers, and to many a new customer as well.
“In demand and sold out again – as in previous years – in particular are the ‘prime cuts’ in Media Frankfurt’s portfolio: digital networks and large, emotional static displays, of the kind for example which Puma is occupying, featuring an impressive testimonial campaign.”
Media Frankfurt – which celebrates its 50th year of operations this year – reports that Frankfurt Airport-based airlines are increasingly fully booked with many carriers’ fleets already up to capacity in the air. It also highlighted that Eurowings Discover, the tourist subsidiary of Lufthansa, has now also started to fly from Frankfurt for the first time.
The airport advertising specialist also pointed to an assessment by the European Travel Commission, which reveals that 70% of all Europeans have firm travel plans for the next six months. More than half intend to travel within Europe as soon as they get their vaccinations.
In addition to increasing holidaymaker business at Frankfurt Airport, Media Frankfurt said that the numbers of business travellers and passengers from overseas – prime target groups for airport advertising – are also on the rise.
“Global top management is already on the plane,” said Schmitz-Kuo. “Business travel has a lot of catching up to do. The decision-makers increasingly want to speak with each other in person again – as long as the baseline is secure. And a trend of previous years is also back: many add a private holiday to their business trip.”
The anticipated upturn in business travellers and long-haul passengers are two of the reasons why Media Frankfurt is expecting strong coverage levels at Frankfurt Airport in the upcoming autumn, according to Head of Marketing Susanne Pfaff.
She said: “Frankfurt Airport is outstandingly positioned in the market. Its central location in Europe is unique, which makes us one of the three most important international hubs in Europe. In addition, on an international comparison, we are outstandingly well linked – the OAG Connectivity Index lists us worldwide at number two.”
“At the same time we are just as strongly networked with the big, economically flourishing catchment area of the nearer Rhine-Main region.”
Pfaff added: “An environment, that is to say, which can play off its strengths in a highly modular way to a multiplicity of target groups. And not just at Frankfurt Airport, but via close collaborations with the airports in Stuttgart, Vienna and Hamburg.”
