HAMBURG – Hamburg Airport posted a loss of around 27.2 million euros last year despite a significant upswing in air traffic after the corona pandemic. The airport wants to operate climate-neutrally by 2035 at the latest – and is building its own wind farm.
Flughafen Hamburg GmbH (FHG) actually wanted to return to profitability in 2023 after three years of losses in a row, but energy prices have risen sharply, said airport boss Michael Eggenschwiler on Wednesday. “Therefore, we assume that we will probably not quite break even this year.”
In 2021, the airport had to accept a minus of 94 million euros. In the first year of Corona, the loss was 113 million euros, of which the federal and state governments compensated for 48 million. In the 25 years before the pandemic, society had always made a profit, said Eggenschwiler. In 2019, the plus was 32.2 million euros. FHG is 51 percent owned by the Hanseatic city. The airport investor AviAlliance GmbH (Düsseldorf) holds 49 percent of the shares.
Sales rose to EUR 216.7 million in 2022, an increase of 68.2 percent compared to the previous year (EUR 128.9 million). After 11.1 million passengers last year, the airport is expecting 13.8 million passengers this year. This corresponds to around 80 percent of the number from 2019.
The comparatively slow recovery of the fifth largest German airport is related to a lower proportion of tourists among passengers, said Eggenschwiler. The inner-German air traffic, which is important for Hamburg and which is mainly made up of business travelers, is developing significantly weaker.
Investments fell last year to 16.6 million euros (previous year: 18.6 million). In 2019, the airport company had invested 115.9 million. FHG intends to spend 250 million euros over the next twelve years to reduce CO2 emissions to zero.
The most important element in the “Net Zero 2035” project is the construction of its own wind farm in Heidmoor near Lehntförden in the Segeberg district for 70 million euros. From 2028, six wind turbines will generate more than 100 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, covering the airport’s entire needs. In addition, hydrogen is to be generated with the electricity.
Another pillar of the project is not to use natural gas. The airport operator wants to heat its approximately 100 buildings with a network of district heating, biogas, electrode boilers and geothermal energy. The entire fleet is to be converted to electric or hydrogen drives.
If the wind power from the Heidmoor is not enough, the airport will continue to use “residual power” from the grid, said Eggenschwiler. It is about the remaining demand for electricity that cannot be covered by wind and solar energy.
Twelve percent of the aircraft that landed and took off in Hamburg last year had particularly energy-efficient engines. A few years ago, the share of these machines was only two percent. Despite a joint declaration of intent for the production of green fuel, which the Heide refinery, Lufthansa and Hamburg Airport had agreed at the beginning of 2019, no synthetic kerosene has been produced to date. The production of the CO2-neutral fuel is in its infancy worldwide. Very high investments are necessary.
© dpa-AFX | Fig.: Hamburg Airport | 03/29/2023 06:46
