The corona pandemic caused Nuremberg Airport a loss of 40 million euros last year. The savings measures introduced by the management were able to minimize the deficit, but not prevent it.

Thanks to the early reaction of the management and a determined implementation of savings in investments, personnel and material costs, the loss could be limited. Since April 2020, the instrument of short-time working has been used extensively in almost all areas of the Group in order to preserve jobs until the pandemic is over. In order to adjust the workforce to the lower volume of traffic in the future, a volunteer program was set up.

78 percent fewer passengers

In 2020, 917.296 passengers used Albrecht Dürer Airport Nuremberg for their business and leisure trips or to visit their families and relatives. The decrease of around 78 percent compared to the previous year is the result of the pandemic-related travel restrictions. The last time less than a million passengers were counted at Nuremberg Airport was in 1985.

The number of passengers was distributed as follows: Traffic within Europe fell by 77,8 percent to 704.000 passengers. Traffic to destinations outside Europe fell by 66.000 percent with just under 69,0 passengers and thus developed slightly better than the airports grouped in the ADV Airport Association with an average of -77,1 percent.

After a promising start to the year with slight growth in January and February 2020, the corona pandemic led to a sharp decline in passenger numbers from March, and shortly afterwards even to a complete cessation of commercial passenger air traffic by mid-June 2020. The summer of 2020 fell short of expectations. After the “Lockdown Light” (November 2nd, 2020) and the subsequent 2nd lockdown (December 13th, 2020) at the latest, travel was almost no longer possible.

More cargo flights handled

Due to the pandemic, additional freight on passenger flights is currently not taking place to the usual extent. On connections such as Nuremberg - Istanbul, freight is otherwise regularly transported in the hold of the aircraft (“belly”). The lack of payload on passenger flights is currently being compensated for by pure cargo flights.

For this reason, air freight developed in the opposite direction to the trend prevailing in passenger traffic. The air freight volume recorded monthly growth rates from November 2020, which can also be attributed to the increased importance of online trading, for example during the Christmas business. With a decrease of 3,9 percent to 4,7 million tons, the volume in 2020 was almost stable.

In the 2020 financial year, a consolidated net loss of EUR 41,2 million had to be reported, which was preceded by a consolidated net profit of EUR 2019 million in the 3,01 financial year. The monetary impact of the reduced number of flights is also reflected in the earnings forecast for the current year 2021. The travel restrictions that continue to apply lead to considerable uncertainty when planning a trip. This is reflected directly in the booking situation. In addition, it is not yet possible to predict how virus mutations will affect the coming months.