The Fraport Cautionary Tale 2018

We were discussing, if we should publish this, but feel it is an important example for many airports, but also confirms the “unfounded accussations” of airline managers about the data quality provided by airports.

Session 1: Fraport Bulgaria 2017

Last year already, we found Fraport Bulgaria to be “shining example” by beautifying their catchment areas. Fraport Bulgaria publishes for BOJ (Burgas) and VAR (Varna) very unusual 40/80/120 min isochrones without local map or source: 40 min = 900 thousand, 80 min = 1.4 million, 120 min = 3 million. Whereas our calculation comes up with 1.37 million for Burgas and 1.16 million for Varna, less than half of that.

We contacted Fraport, explaining our standard Methodology that works everywhere in Europe the same, proving their numbers to be extremely exaggerated. The response was ignorant and slightly offensive, how we could dare to question their numbers. Ohhh…kay. No, they did not respond to our question, where those numbers came from. From their responses we must assume, that they are a very unscientific guesswork by someone. Professional? No. Willing to learn and correct themselves: A definite No.

Okay, we left it at that. Providing low cost realistic numbers and free comparison that shows them their numbers to be imaginative but unrealistic, they don’t want to learn.

Session 2: Fraport Greece 2018

This year we’re updating the numbers again, starting with the passenger numbers. Important, as we’re facing Routes Europe in April and most airports do come up by March (finally) with their numbers. Interesting to mention how long that takes, given we’re 20 years into the digital age. While German ADV.aero published their 2017 numbers with simple errors where for 3 out of 22 airports (FDH, PAD, SXF), the sum of the monthly figures did not match the annual totals, we did not bother to look into into the other airports. The Numbers Game as I addressed it 1 ½ yeary ago…

So, while looking up Bulgaria, we found the numbers for Fraport group airports published them on their investors site. So we directly took the numbers into our import file for Greece as well. Then we came to Greece and downloaded the published passenger and movement statistics from the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. Which also contains the 14 Fraport Airports. And then we got shocked, and that doesn’t happen very often.

480 thousand passenger difference
or 35,000 in average per airport?

You. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!

With Airports Council International’s (ACI) Statistics Manual, there is little room for “interpretation”. Also minor corrections are sure not contemporary in the digital world, but still not too uncommon. But 480 thousand for 14 airports? And not “all lower” or “all higher”, but sometimes the Fraport numbers are lower, most times (substantially) higher. So it is not an issue of “statistical definition” either, as then it would be always lower or higher.

No matter the final reasoning, such discrepancies, the inability to publish professional and sound numbers is a major issue with airline managers, questioning airport data. As well as a SITA senior manager 2 ½ years ago disqualified airport data as untrustworthy, such frequently not taken into account for the “source of truth” in data exchange processes. Ain’t that strikes only me odd, that our industry simply seems incapable to provide quality data within reasonable time? More than 20 years into the computer age? The same issue in A-CDM, where the low quality of airport information is considered by many experts cause for ongoing problems. Establishing A-CDM is a step to improve data. Very often, A-CDM helps to establish a basic data exchange and enforcing some data quality, but according to operations managers the discrepancies between systems remain the single most disruptive issue.

P.S.: Session 3: Fraport Antalya 2018

Sure, Fraport Antalya topped that also with a discrepancy of 414,409 passengers. Okay, that is only about 1.6% of the passengers, but give me a break. +400 thousand passengers difference? And ain’t that interesting that the DHMI (Turkish CAA) shows 2,435 more flights than Fraport?

Food for Thought?
Comments welcome!

The data (updated):

Passengers

Movements

Passengers Antalya

Movements Antalya