More Passengers and More Revenue at High Costs
The airport's Management Board used today's meeting of the Supervisory Board of Flughafen Dortmund GmbH to present the preliminary annual result for 2025 to the members of the Supervisory Board. The annual result did not quite mirror the new passenger record of 3,242,569 travellers. Moreover, the Management Board updated the members about the current status of approved investments and submitted additional investment projects to the Supervisory Board meeting for a resolution.
Dortmund Airport had a successful year in 2025. Setting a new passenger record, the airport managed to compensate in full the complete loss of Ryanair's traveller volume (430,000 passengers) as well as further passenger losses due to the reduction in Eurowings services (130,000 passengers). This led to a slight increase in revenue (€49.81 million; +1.7 percent year-on-year). Nevertheless, the airport did not manage to build on the progressive improvement in profits from the previous year. Rising costs, due in particular to public sector pay rises, negatively impacted the company's result, eroding the preliminary annual result for the past year to minus €6.2 million (net loss for 2024: minus €1.8 million). The operating result excluding sovereign costs (EBITDA) therefore experienced a year-on-year decline from €5.1 million to €778,000. The EU EBITDA, the operating result according to the European Commission's airport guidelines, is expected to reach €6 million.
“Strong passenger growth and the airport's prospects are particularly important to us”, explains Ludger van Bebber. “We welcomed more passengers than ever before, while our partners are continuing to expand their involvement at the airport. This is indicative of a buoyant mood concerning the location’s development." He attributes the deterioration in the annual result primarily to a disproportionate increase in costs. “Ultimately, we were unable to pass on to customers the cost increases caused by the very high collective wage agreements and the introduction of a new collective agreement covering all ground handling services. Around 75 percent of the cost increases were incurred in this area. What matters now is to make full use of additional opportunities to grow revenue while maintaining cost discipline. Ongoing development of our flight schedule is a long-term process that will require time and investment to achieve sustainable success. Despite the immense challenges we are currently facing, we will experience significantly faster growth this year compared to the market and therefore continue our uptick in earnings." The final result for 2025 is expected to be published after completion of the audit in June.
The deployment of electrically powered vehicles is increasing steadily. Meanwhile, the demand for high-performance charging infrastructure is growing and is expected to show an upward trajectory in the years ahead. During the meeting, the Supervisory Board was informed about the construction of a publicly accessible fast-charging park designed to secure modern infrastructure in the long term and to expand the portfolio of services. This means that both passengers and car hire providers will be able to charge their vehicles close to their location in future. The fast-charging park will be set up at the airport, then maintained and operated by an external provider. Going forward, Dortmund Airport will provide the operator with a suitable area of the carpark in front of the administration building.