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LUFTHANSA STRENGTHENS HUB AT MUNICH

As part of a push for growth, Deutsche Lufthansa AG is to develop Munich airport into its second intercontinental hub in Germany. This will give the airline a second major operational base as well as Frankfurt.

The flight schedule for the summer of 2001, which takes effect on 25 March, already includes the new longhaul destinations of Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Singapore in addition to the established routes Munich to New York, Chicago and San Francisco. These intercontinental services are supplemented by no fewer than 133 new domestic and European connections. By concentrating most arrivals and departures within six, as opposed to the previous three, daily time windows, Lufthansa plans to make life easier for passengers changing flights in Munich. Meanwhile the longhaul fleet based in Munich is to be boosted by a further two Airbus 340's, giving a total of five aircraft of this type.

The airport company and Lufthansa are well placed to accommodate the new Munich hub: when the new jointly operated Terminal 2 opens in 2003 with its satellite, the capacity of the airport will increase overnight to over 28 million passengers a year.

On the other hand, the airport has an Achilles heel in the form of the chronically congested road link out of Munich to Erdinger Moos. However, as well as the existing local S-Bahn train service, a mainline service is already under construction. An additional express S-Bahn service is also planned. What the Bavarians would like most would be for the Government to fund building of a Transrapid link into the city centre, as was suggested by the Bavarian Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Munich Airport, Kurt Faltlhauser, at a Lufthansa commemorative event on the occasion of delivery of the 30th A340 in Munich.

According to Lufthansa Chief Executive, Jürgen Weber, the plans to expand the airline's presence in Munich are directly linked to developments at Frankfurt Airport. "By operating two hubs in parallel, we will not be dependent on a single location. The more restrictions are placed on growth in Frankfurt, the more imperative it becomes to operate a minimum two-hub system in Germany. In a dynamic market, we cannot wait for the outcome of the present debate and legal proceedings, which could last for years. Because this affects Germany as a business location, we will expand where the infrastructure is adequate, even if this means a move away from Frankfurt."

Evidently it is the plans regarding night flights in the extended Frankfurt Airport which have pushed Weber into taking this tough line, and the consequences for Lufthansa's home base in the state of Hesse could be far-reaching. In return for approval of the plans to expand Frankfurt Airport, an absolute ban is to be imposed on night flights between 11pm and 5am. The Minister President of Hesse and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Frankfurt Airport, Roland Koch, of all people is insisting on this link.

Weber for his part believes that a total ban on night flights lasting several hours is totally unacceptable. An international airport, he argues, must as a matter of principle be able to handle flights all around the clock. There will always be cases of individual flights which have been delayed and need to be able to obtain clearance to land, if necessary even at night. As a minimum, Weber believes a quota allocation procedure allowing a limited number of night-time exceptions is required.

A strict ban on night flights at Frankfurt would in Weber's view cause serious damage to the hub function and competitive position of that airport and would within a few years result in the migration of traffic growth, for example, to Amsterdam or Paris. Jürgen Weber himself will not have to take such drastic measures as the new Lufthansa hub in Munich will provide him with increased alternative capacity with further growth potential for the future.

From page 33 of FLUG REVUE 12/2000