German airport operator Fraport said Tuesday second-quarter profit dipped nearly 6% largely because of rising costs and the lack of several one-off gains from last year.
The Frankfurt-based company earned 65.1 million euros ($89.9 million) in the April-June period compared with 69 million euros a year earlier. Despite the drop, it was better than the expected drop to 60.3 million euros ($83.32 million) that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast.
The decline came as the airport operator said that traffic passenger began to slow at its flagship Frankfurt International airport, the third busiest in Europe behind London's Heathrow and France's Charles de Gaulle.
But the company is in the process of expanding the terminal, a nexus for travelers flying in from Asia and North America, by adding more space, more shops and a new runway.
Sales rose 2.4% to 563.2 million euros ($778.23 million) from 549.9 million euros a year earlier even as pretax profit slipped 13% to 105.7 million euros ($146.06 million) from 121.1 million euros.
Looking forward, the operator of Frankfurt International Airport, and five others in Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey and Peru, said it expects revenue for 2007 to be above the 2.14 billion euros it made last year, along with a rise in pretax profit above the 578.4 million euros it earned in 2006.
The company did not cite any specific target, only that it would likely be higher.
Shares of Fraport gained more than 1% to 49.05 euros ($67.78).