FLUG REVUE March 2005: Munich airport revamps Terminal 1

March 2005

MUNICH'S “NEW” TERMINAL 1

By Sebastian Steinke

Peter Trautmann, Managing Director of Technical and Traffic Operations at Flughafen München GmbH, recalls the considerable volume of traffic that Terminal 1 (T1) alone handles at Munich airport, after welcoming FLUG REVUE into his office in mid-January. “At nine million, the passenger volume handled here matches the entire volume of airports like Cologne and Nice and is about 500,000 passengers above that of Geneva. We handle 120,000 flight movements a year, or 320 movements a day.” If one takes into account the cessation of operations during the night, this amounts to twenty movements per hour just in Terminal 1.

Following the opening of the elegant, new Lufthansa Terminal 2 in June 2003 in Munich and the total departure of Lufthansa from Terminal 1, it had looked initially as if Terminal 1, which was only opened in 1992, would have to get used to being under-utilised. Instead, the Bavarians have succeeded in transforming their first terminal to match the completely different requirements of new users. To this end, they have conceptually dissected the kilometre-long structure with its 1081m frontage into “slices”. Trautmann explains: “The strategy was to concentrate on customer requirements. Here we want to maintain our neutrality. Despite the competition between Lufthansa/Star and the other airlines, we want fairness and equal treatment. It goes without saying that you don't find that everywhere.”

Trautmann has no reservations as regards the no-frills airlines (“Low cost is important to us”) and provides financial support for new route start-ups. “Even Michael O'Leary of Ryanair has sat here in my office,” he confesses. “But an airline that isn't prepared to pay anything will never fly here. We have 109 airlines here, so we simply can't have one that pays nothing.” Trautmann contests O'Leary's view that an airport can live solely “on Hermes ties”, i.e. on the profits of passenger purchases in the airport shops. “A hub like Munich has certain costs which have to be paid, otherwise everything gets tatty.” The baggage sorting equipment in Terminal 1 on its own is worth between 50 and 100 million euro. Apparently O'Leary's typically gruff response, when this was pointed out, was that airports like Munich should be “burned down”.

However, the other low-cost airlines apparently feel at home in Munich. As well as home carrier dba, Terminal 1 is used by Gexx, HLX, Air Berlin and easyJet, amongst others. Germanwings on the other hand recently followed Lufthansa into the new Terminal 2. Trautmann continues: “All these airlines fly here, but on fair conditions of competition.” According to the airport manager, the airlines' ground costs constitute only between six and eight percent of their total costs. “This can't be a critical factor, since the market is well represented here.” Besides, he observes, there are not many alternative locations whose passenger volumes support no-frills connections. “We do quite well out of it.”

In return, the airport has not raised its charges for years and instead is generating extra revenue through well-known brands in retail and gastronomy. Thus, sales of watches alone at the airport amount to Euro 7 million. However, the supermarket in the public part of the airport, which is extremely popular due to its late daily opening hours, is contractually obliged not to be more expensive than a supermarket in Munich.

In view of the protracted German approval processes for building extensions that can spin out over ten years, Trautmann believes it is unavoidable that there should be some unused capacity in the early days of commencing operations. In 1992, when the passenger volume was twelve million, the airport relocated from Riem, with a capacity of 24 million, to Erdinger Moos. Today, Munich as a whole already handles 26.8 million passengers. Passenger numbers are doubling every ten years.

The aim of renovating Terminal 1 is to make it as attractive as Terminal 2. In actual fact the “old” Terminal 1 is only ten years old. Today, its northernmost area A handles the low-cost flights of dba, Gexx, HLX and Air Berlin. However, the passengers of these airlines also include a large number of business travellers, who find it particularly convenient to have only a short walk to the nearby counters of the car hire companies. One of the car hire companies has even donated an original “lodge” for use by the low-cost passengers. With a waiting room decorated to look like a log cabin with benches around an electrically heated “chimney”, this is supposed to radiate cosiness.

Tourist flights, such as the Air Berlin shuttle to Majorca, also take off from area A. But when Hapag-Lloyd is using Munich as a hub and has passengers transiting between 18 jets within two hours, things get really busy. 4,000 passengers and their luggage then have to be spread across modules A, B and C, depending on destination.

Right next to area A is the international and security area B. Here airlines from the USA, the United Kingdom and Russia, such as BA, Delta, Aeroflot, Pulkovo, Sibir and easyJet, have their flights processed under more stringent security conditions. If a passenger in area A is only seldom asked to take off his shoes for inspection, in area C seats and carpets are provided so that this procedure, which is regularly practised here, can be implemented as smoothly as possible. The stringent controls are supplemented by a counter run by the Federal Border Police that deals with departing international flights. Airlines from the CIS states in particular are opening up an increasingly affluent market that is strategically important to Munich airport, escaped untouched by the aftermath of 11 September and the SARS epidemic and has experienced uninterrupted traffic growth. Due to strong Russian penetration of the Alpine winter sports areas, Aeroflot currently operates a Sunday service to the Isar with the Boeing 777.

A second hot iron in the fire of the Bavarians is also to be found in the centre of Terminal 1, but one door further along, in area C: here in the regular international area fly all the international non-EU airlines, including industry giant Emirates from Dubai and the equally ambitious but still young Etihad from Abu Dhabi. Turkish, Swiss, Tunisair, Royal Jordanian and Egyptair all have their flights handled here. Even Lufthansa is represented here, as some of its personnel are stationed in T1 to look after third-party customers.

Airside passengers who have already gone through security can pass their waiting time in the former Lufthansa and now Atlantic lounge complete with showers (area C), as long as they have an airline invitation or are prepared to pay Euro 18 for the privilege. Air France (area D) and Delta (area B) also offer their own lounges. Then there is the Europa lounge in area D, which again is available on invitation or upon payment of an admission free.

CEO Trautmann extends a particularly warm welcome to his Arab customers. A large number of very affluent passengers come to Bavaria, apparently due to its “cool” summer climate or for medical treatment, while at the same time even Arabs who are resident in London are now coming to live in Munich because they feel subjectively safer here than in the United Kingdom.

But normal citizens also play an important role in the Arab traffic: every haj pilgrim season sees no less than 5,000 to 6,000 believers depart from MUC for Mecca. From a handling point of view, these passengers are a special challenge, as every pilgrim brings an average of three to four companions along with him. As well as an interdenominational prayer room, Terminal 1 also boasts two devotional areas strictly segregated by sex for followers of the Islamic faith. Special plaques in these areas indicate the direction of Mecca so that worshippers can pray facing the right direction.

Emirates, which already operates a twice daily A330 service to Dubai, could one day be the first A380 user in Munich's Terminal 1. In addition to the two positions on the Lufthansa side by Terminal 2, a third passenger walkway converted for use with the A380 is being erected in T1 position 112/113 in area C. Similarly, there is a T1 apron parking space as well, in a spot at present frequently occupied during the daytime by a Lufthansa A340-600.

If everything goes according to plan as regards the building of the new A380 maintenance hangar for Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt, as it looks as if it will, the Munich operators will no longer need the space they have reserved between the two big maintenance hangers (currently used for BMW driver training) for this purpose. Instead, they are offering to expand the smaller, westernmost hangar so that it could accommodate an A380, should an airline customer require local maintenance facilities. Until then, the Bavarians are hoping for some first flying visits before long, as part of the A380 demonstration flights by Airbus and Lufthansa, and a special flight to be laid on by Emirates for the 2006 World Football Championships. The entire airport, including fire service, is already certificated to ICAO category F for the A380.

Back to Terminal 1. Virtually at the southernmost edge is area D. This is where EU airlines operating under the Schengen Agreement set off from. These include Air France, KLM, Alitalia, Iberia and Olympic. In the EU domestic area, controls are less stringent.

Moreover, the x-ray machines that scan the baggage of departing passengers are still positioned in front of the checking counters, being operated in Bavaria by the local “Air Authority South”, part of the Bavarian Ministry of Economics. Because of the relatively large distances between checkpoints along the kilometre-long terminal axis, at particularly busy times long queues have sometimes formed in the past in the terminal – a deplorable state of affairs which the airport has consistently complained about but has hitherto been unable to remedy as it was outside its area of responsibility. However, soon, beginning in area C, the x-ray scanners required to perform the 100% baggage scanning required by law are to be relocated behind the walls of the check-in counters after some building work, so that passengers can walk up to all the counters again without having to wait in a queue.

Finally, arrivals area E in T1 is followed by the largely unknown area F, a high-security area used, for example, for flights to Israel. Whereas landside passengers check in in a completely separate building behind the northern Terminal 2, a particularly well monitored ramp area lies airside next to Terminal 1 to deal with this traffic. Passengers to the former Yugoslavia were processed here as well. But for the returning victims of the Asian floods there is a discreet reception area in module F as well.

The biggest changes in T1 apart from the new security provisions are visible in the areas of gastronomy and retail outlets. To improve the shopping facilities in line with those of Terminal 2, the airport operating company is currently renovating the baggage handling areas. Whereas up to now, after checking in and passing through the security checks, one has gone to the raised walkway for transit passengers directly in front of the stairs, all the terminal areas are currently being upgraded so that passengers will step out, to find themselves in front of a large array of restaurants, thus promoting consumer spending. Areas previously devoted to catering around the edge of the hall will now be vacated to make way for shops, while steps and lifts will transport passengers to the corners of the halls. Additional tables along the window frontage will invite passengers to linger over a view of the apron. Area C has already been remodelled, and area D is set to open in February.

From page 72 of FLUG REVUE 3/2005

Last updated 12 February 2005

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