March 18 (Reuters) - Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport

forecast on Tuesday only a moderate increase in its

2025 core income and passenger traffic, after missing full-year

core income estimates because regulatory costs were higher and

people traveled less towards the end of the year.

The company said it expects its earnings before

interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2025 to

increase moderately.

Jefferies analysts had expected an EBITDA of 1.39

billion euros ($1.52 billion) for 2025.

Fraport generated core income of 1.3 billion euros in the

fiscal year 2024, just missing analysts' consensus of 1.31

billion.

The company forecast 2025 passenger numbers in Frankfurt

to be 64 million versus 61.6 million in 2024.

In October, CEO Stefan Schulte had said Fankfurt airport

would reach its pre-COVID passenger traffic levels in 2025 or

2026 as its recovery largely depends on Boeing ( BA ) deliveries

to Lufthansa. The latter accounted for more than 60%

of Frankfurt's passengers in 2022.

But Schulte said on Tuesday that new aircraft bottlenecks

and excessively high regulatory costs continue to be a major

factors in slower passenger traffic recovery.

"If no political action is taken, costs imposed by

regulators will further increase in 2025," Schulte added in a

statement.

In 2019 passenger traffic in Frankfurt reached 70.6

millions, making it the fourth largest passenger airport in

Europe.

The company decided again not to propose an annual dividend

due to continued high debt levels.

($1 = 0.9168 euros)