Frankfurt Airport expansion aprroved, Night ban lifted

[Jessnor Arif 1]

Spiegel Online

 

Frankfurt Airport Expansion Enrages Residents

 

The Frankfurt airport, one of the world's biggest hubs, has received the go-ahead to build a new terminal and runway. The regional government says the €4 billion expansion will create 40,000 jobs. But residents and environmental groups are furious at a decision to allow night flights, and plan a wave of lawsuits.

 

The Hesse regional government has approved Frankfurt airport's plans to build a new terminal and runway.

Environmental groups, city councils and residents near Frankfurt Airport -- Europe's third busiest, behind London's Heathrow and Paris' Charles de Gaulle -- are planning lawsuits after Tuesday's decision by the regional government to allow construction of a fourth runway and a third terminal.

 

Horst Schneider, mayor of the Frankfurt-area city of Offenbach, said the increased noise of aircraft landing and taking off will hit his community especially hard. "We will use all legal means, right up to the EU level if necessary," he said. Schneider said some 150,000 people will be negatively affected by the expansion. Unlike protected animal species, people couldn't simply be moved elsewhere, he said.

 

He's not alone. Environmental groups and local authorities around the airport are planning legal action and are especially angry that the Hesse regional government broke its promise to ban night flights as part of the airport expansion.

 

"Residents have been misled for years," said Brigitte Martin, spokeswoman for environmental group BUND. The government had "thrown down the gauntlet" to the local population, she said. The opposition Social Democrats in the Hesse state parliament said they were also considering legal action.

 

Hesse's Economy Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had given Fraport, the airport operator, the green light for the €4 billion expansion to ease capacity bottlenecks. "Only through this will Frankfurt remain one of the eight most important air transport hubs in the world," said Hesse's Economy Minister, Alois Rhiel.

 

In giving approval to the project, the Hesse government said it would allow 17 flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night, giving priority to cargo flights. Airlines had asked for more, and holiday airline Condor said the total ban on passenger services between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. was a "bitter pill" for the company. German national carrier Deutsche Lufthansa, which owns almost 10 percent of Fraport, had called for permission for 41 flights a night.

 

Rhiel said the expansion would create 40,000 jobs by 2020. He said night flights had to be allowed because of Frankfurt's importance as an international cargo and passenger hub. Besides, a ban would probably not have been legally enforcable following court rulings allowing them at the airports of Munich and Leipzig.

 

The project will entail removing 282 hectares of forest and resettling a variety of protected animals.

 

Hesse Prime Minister Roland Koch, who faces a tough regional election on Jan. 27, said failure to expand Frankfurt would have been "a disaster for the region."

 

Frankfurt Airport is expected to handle some 54 million passengers this year, but says it needs more capacity to cope with an expected 88 million passengers in 2020 as passenger numbers grow some 3.5 percent annually.

 

Demand for aircraft take-offs and landings is likely to rise to about 700,000 by 2020 from 489,000 in 2006, Fraport has said. Cargo and mail tonnage carried is also expected to increase more than 70 percent, to 3.16 million metric tonnes in 2020.

 

The German state of Hesse owns 31.6 percent of Fraport, while the city of Frankfurt holds 20 percent of the stock. Fraport Chief Executive Wilhelm Bender said he was confident the airport will win upcoming court cases brought by opponents of the expansion.

 

The new runway to the northwest of Frankfurt Airport is due to come into operation by 2011. The third terminal to the south of the airport, which will raise the airport's current capacity of 56 million passengers annually by 25 million, is expected to be completed around 2013/14.

[Pieter C. 5]

The project will entail removing 282 hectares of forest and resettling a variety of protected animals.

 

Personally, no problem with the lifting of the night-ban nor new runway (to the North of the Autobahn), but cutting 282 hectares of forest ...

 

[Pieter C. 5]

Fraport Sells Stake Hahn Airport Stake For 1 Euro

 

February 3, 2009

Airport operator Fraport sold its 65 percent stake in Hahn airfield to the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to limit losses, Fraport said.

 

Fraport sold the holding for a symbolic price of 1 euro (USD$1.29), effective from January 1, also ending all financial obligations tied to Hahn.

 

"We cannot afford loss-making operations permanently," Deputy CEO Stefan Schulte said.

 

The state had urged the group not to introduce an extra fee of 3 euros per passenger, a move Fraport said was needed for Hahn to break even.

 

Fraport said it will take a charge of EUR30 million euros on its investment in Hahn, a former US military airfield about 100 km (60 miles) west of Frankfurt.

 

The write-down will affect its 2008 accounts, it added.

 

Ryanair, the airport's main airline, said last month it would not go ahead with threats to scale back flights to Hahn after Rhineland-Palatinate pledged to fend off mooted passenger fees.

 

(Reuters)