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MUNICH AIRPORT OUTLINES EXPANSION PLANS

During this year's annual balance conference Willi Hermsen, Managing Director of Munich Airport (MUC) was overjoyed when he announced, "with the beginning of the 21st century we passed the 21 million passenger mark", (cp FLUG REVUE 03/00). According to Hermsen this would place the airport's growth rate significantly above the German average. Hermsen also reports above average growth with regards to flight movements and air cargo (cp information diagrams).

This is how the Munich Airport Company (FMG) was able to increase profits by 20 per cent to DM75mio over the previous year. According to the FMG there was a record operating revenue in 1999 with DM985mio. Losses amounting to DM244mio in previous years could consequently be lowered to below DM170mio. Willi Hermsen is optimistic, when he says, "we expect to make over a billion DM operating revenues in 2000. This is realistic because we assume in our business plan that we will be handling 22.9mio passengers this year. And in addition we will probably exceed 300,000 annual flight movements".

The FMG wants to be prepared for the future. After the new Airport Centre (MAC) was opened last year, all efforts are currently focused on the construction of Terminal 2, which will be put into operation in 2003 at the latest. During the planning stage the gross floor space was increased by 25 per cent to 250,000 m2 because of the tremendous development in traffic at the Erdinger Moos. This would make it possible to accommodate up to 20 million passengers. The people of Munich are spending DM1.7bn on the construction. The entire project, "the MUC Expansion", amounts to DM3bn. Part of this project is also an additional satellite (an about 550meter long check-in building at the eastern apron), further positions on the apron and increased funds for infrastructure. In order to finance everything an estate agency, in which Lufthansa has a 40 and the FMG a 60 per cent share, was founded. Naturally in future LH and her partner companies will have exclusive use of the new terminal.

MUC Chief Hermsen knows that a road network will have to be developed quickly. The most important task is the six-lane extension of the A92 (Deggendorf-Landshut-Munich). " This extension will have to be completed in 2003 at the latest when the second terminal is put into operation, otherwise we will have utter chaos on the roads," is the worst case scenario according to Hermsen. However, the east-west bypass is not the only problem. According to Hermsen the prospect of linking the southeast Bavarian area (including Austrian catchment areas) with Munich Airport by using the main-line railway Mühldorf-Freilassing-Salzburg is quite conceivably bad, since the German Government has disallowed a dual line expansion of this route. Another topic is the ICE linking of Northern Bavaria (Franconia). While a new high speed line is being built between Nuremberg and Ingolstadt the rest of the line leading to Munich is also used by regional and goods trains. The FMG MD comments as follows, "in the mid-term an expansion of the new route (up to Munich) is unavoidable to create a continuous and unlimited north-south connection, which can take high speed traffic".

In the end an excellent infrastructure will make it possible to outsmart the competition. There will be close contact with one competitor in particular, the Vienna Airport, since Austrian Airlines joined the Star Alliance. Industry insiders are convinced that there will be a distinct split between Munich, as north-south hub, and Vienna as east-west hub of the Star Alliance. Willi Hermsen has his doubts "I cannot imagine how this will be put into practise. I cannot envisage that traffic will be separated according to these criteria, i.e. that Lufthansa will simply give up flights to and from Eastern Europe and hand them over to Austrian Airlines. LH will be intent on developing flights from Munich further and Austrian Airlines will be doing the same in Vienna, which will obviously lead to some destinations being "over-serviced".

Hermsen is confident that with this freshly introduced dynamic growth development, the course is set for Munich Airport as the job engine. It furthermore ensures that "the region has a top quality position" for an active economy and will give considerable thrust to the economy of the entire South German economy. It will also guarantee that MUC as multiple functional service centre will be able to hold its ground for years to come when competing with the other big European hubs from A for Amsterdam to Z for Zurich.

From page 30 of FLUG REVUE 4/2000