Leading the way

Fraport AG is the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport, one of the largest and most efficient air travel hubs in the world. In an exclusive interview with EU Infrastructure, Fraport CEO Dr Wilhelm Bender discusses sustainability, infrastructure challenges and future growth plans.

“The major challenge of our expansion, besides meeting the target costs and being on schedule, will be to organise the construction activities in a way that minimises negative effects on current airport services and air traffic operation”
-Dr. Wilhelm Bender, Fraport AG

Fraport is among the leading groups of companies in the international airport business, operating some of the busiest airports around the world. As an experienced airport manager, Fraport is looking to modernise and expand Frankfurt Airport, in particular the infrastructure to the north of the airport, incorporating a fourth runway, for aircraft landings only, and a third terminal. Furthermore, Fraport will implement continuous measures to generate further retail space and increase real estate at the airport, creating an ‘Airport City’ – a first class service for mobility, shopping, events and real estate. “Because of its multimodal transportation links and outstanding strategic location, exactly meeting the requirements to be an attractive airport city,” explains Dr Wilhelm Bender, CEO, Fraport. “The underlying vision is a world that combines travel, work, living and relaxation.” The focus for the project is on non-aviation development and all new areas of development will be part of Frankfurt Airport City, including Monchhof Site, Airrail Center Frankfurt and Gateway Gardens. “The concept is focused on Frankfurt Airport because it is our hub and therefore the base for this idea, but of course we hope to pass on our experience within the group and try to export the idea to the other major airport we are operating.”

In January 2008, Fraport were given the green light to build a fourth runway and a third terminal. Bender explains that construction work is expected to start in 2009 after a ruling of the administrative court, and that the new runway, for aircraft landings only, will be in operation for the winter 2011 timetable. “Furthermore, additional capacities for aircraft handling have to be built to cope with the predicted growth of aircraft movements and passengers at Frankfurt Airport by 2020,” explains Bender. Figures are expected to rise from about 500,000 to cover 700,000 movements per annum, with the number of passenger increasing over 50% from 54 to 88 million.

“The major challenge of our expansion, besides meeting the target costs and being on schedule, will be to organise the construction activities in a way that minimises negative effects on current airport services and air traffic operation,” says Bender. “And, finally, there will be the challenge to integrate the increasing air traffic volumes into daily airport operations and services.”

A primary consideration for operators of infrastructure projects is how to mitigate any impacts on the local environment, and Fraport is no different. The company’s concept for renovation of infrastructure and for construction of new buildings is based on the careful use of natural resources in a cost-effective way. “Our main objectives are using less drinking water and enhancing technical standards, such as energy consumption and emissions, on airport grounds,” says Bender. Other examples include new water pipelines in all restrooms and the use of recycled water for washing vehicles.

Expansion and development of aircraft noise are the greatest environmental problems for airports, and this applies to Frankfurt Airport, which is located in a densely populated area and features high traffic volumes. While Fraport give maximum priority to fighting aircraft noise, they can only indirectly influence aircraft noise nuisance. However, the future development of aircraft noise impact resulting from airport expansion is a core issue for all involved, and Fraport is pursuing a whole range of measures to effectively reduce and avoid aircraft noise, such as the operation of quieter aircraft, a noise-related charging system, minimum-noise approach and departure routes and supporting passive noise abatement measures.

“Our plan is to decrease CO2 emissions by 30%, per traffic unit until 2020, and we are planning a geothermic design for the new Terminal 3.”

Growth

However, while planning a decrease for emissions, Frankfurt Airport recorded noticeable growth in the first half of 2008, up more than 2.2% on the same period last year. “This growth rate is achieved despite extremely limited runway capacity,” says Berg. Short haul traffic is currently being superseded by long haul/intercontinental flights, with 40% of flights currently intercontinental, an increase of 3% on the previous year. “Since international flights are conducted with larger aircraft, more passengers can be transported despite a stagnation in aircraft movements. The loss of some short haul connections, such as Frankfurt-Cologne, are due to Frankfurt Airport’s unique transport connections: being in the centre of Germany’s high-speed train network system offers convenient connections by rail.”

More long haul flights also means more transfer traffic, and numerous expansion projects will contribute to an even more efficient and convenient passenger experience. New two-level boarding gates, remodelled state-of-the-art infrastructure, fascinating retail outlets and unique services will secure passenger satisfaction and passenger growth, to up 2011 before the fourth runway is complete. “During 2011 our new runway will be in operation and the current airside capacity bottleneck will disappear,” explains Bender. “With our third terminal as well as out brand new and competitive airport services we are quite confident about achieving future growth.”

Other significant infrastructure projects include the Airrail Center and the A380 maintenance base. The Airrail Centre is an innovative building, 660 metres in length and up to 65 metres in width, situated directly above the airport’s ICE high-speed railway station, as a unique interface between rail, road and air transport. The centre will be opened in 2010, in order to serve the needs of discerning office users, providing 94,500 metres squared of office space, 34,500 metres squared of hotel space and more.

While Frankfurt Airport already has docking positions for the A380 superjumbo, the maintenance base is under construction. Lufthansa Technik inaugurated the first section of the new A380 maintenance hangar in January 2007, but the entire hangar system will not be completed until 2015. Lufthansa is investing around €150 million in the new maintenance base, which will have capacity for four A380s and will be Europe’s largest aircraft maintenance facility.

As well a fourth runway and a third terminal, Fraport plans to increase the duty free space at Frankfurt and drive retail revenues up by 2012. Airport retail is an important revenue generator at airports worldwide, and passengers have come to expect, aside from smooth operations and processes, a decent shopping space. Fraport will be expanding the shopping floor space from 16,000 square meters in 2007, to 30,000 square meters by 2012. As a result Berg is expecting revenues to jump from €2.69 per passenger in 2007, to €4.00 in 2012. “The challenge, of course, is finding the perfect mix of shop operators for our customers, and we will be closely co-operating with the airlines to attract a high number of customers to our shopping areas and marketplaces,” says Berg.

Future focus

Berg believes that no other industrial sector will grow as strong and fast as air traffic. “We agree with the experts forecasting that the international passenger volume will double by 2020,” explains Berg. “This is a pleasant outlook for airport operators worldwide but at the same time this presents one of the biggest challenges our industry will have to cope with in the future, particularly for the big hubs, which bundle streams of passengers, distribute and co-ordinate them.” Berg believes that many big hubs are currently operating at their capacity limits and consequently only those airports who have prepared themselves for the increasing demand and generated the capacity need well in advance will be able to cope with the immense traffic growth. “Besides the capacity issue, the airline industry will continue their dialogue about costs, which must be in line with the market,” says Berg. “The achievement of competitive airport charges is an ongoing process in which both sides have to consider conflicting positions to ensure sustained and beneficial co-operation.”

In spite of intense competition, Berg is working to ensure that Fraport becomes one of the leading companies in the international airport management business, and is preparing for the increase in air travel demand with its investment projects. “Our expansion programme will contribute enormously to the strategic development of the company, and a large number of our expansion projects will ensure capacity growth and higher location attractiveness,” says Berg. Significant projects include the fourth runway, third terminal, Airrail Centre and the A380 maintenance base, as well as the transformation of Frankfurt Airport into an airport city. “Airport expansion projects in line with market and competition requirements have their price, and it is therefore of particular importance to implement measures for clear cost structures ensuring that there is no threat to the success of Frankfurt Airport in the long term,” concludes Berg.

Profile: Frankfurt Airport

• Passengers per year: 54,167,8173 in 2007
• Freight per year: 2,095, 293 metric tons in 2007
• Flight movements per year: 492, 569 in 2007
• More than 300 destinations in 109 countries
• 1,250 takeoffs and landings daily
• 386 check-in counters
• Three runways, each 4000m long
• 70,000 employees
• Direct connection to German Rail with over 170 trains daily at the airport’s long-distance train station and 218 trains daily at the regional station

 

Infrastructure optimisation

In addition to the new runway, terminal and long term expansions, Fraport are also working on a number of medium and short term projects to increase capacity at Frankfurt Airport, including:

New surface movement control systems

For further improving the control and co-ordination of airport ground movements Fraport is planning to implement TACSYS taxi and control system, which allows for real-time location and identification of aircraft as well as a navigation ad guidance system for all vehicles.

Terminal capacities expanded

Over the past few years Fraport has continually optimised Frankfurt Airport’s infrastructure – investments in modernisation projects at Terminal 1 alone have amounted to over a €500,000 billion in the last few years.

New Pier A0

Fraport is planning to build a new passenger pier to extend Terminal 1 further westward by 2012 to accommodate the new Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 aircraft ordered by Lufthansa. The 790-meter-long pier will comprise of about 160,000 square meters and will have capacity for up to six million passengers per year. Construction is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2008.

New design of Pier B

The new deign of Pier B in Terminal 1 was implemented in January 2008 in order to serve the new EU security regulations effective 2009 regarding the separation of arriving and departing passengers. The new design will feature a new lounge, retail and functional areas as well as three new gate positions remodelled to enable efficient boarding of the new A380 aircraft with two different levels. Passengers will experience more security, comfort and quicker handling as a result of improved service, guidance and baggage removal. Upon completion in summer 2011 the remodelled to serve approximately 10 million passengers annually.

Forecast 2020

Intraplan Research Institute worked with the latest data available on current traffic volume to forecast the development of air traffic demand at Frankfurt Airport until the year 2020. The forecast is based on the assumption that the airport is expanded as expected. Based on these premises, air traffic at Frankfurt Airport is expected to grow further:

• While in 2005 some 52 million passengers used the airport, this number is anticipated to grow to 88.3 million in the year 2020, which corresponds to an annual passenger growth of 3.5%
• Cargo and mail tonnage carried will increase by more than 70% to a total of 3.16 million metric tons in 2020
• Demand for flight movements is expected to rise to about 700,000 movements per year in 2020 from 490,000 movements in 2005
• About half of all passengers at Frankfurt Airport are transfers, and according to the forecast, this will not change in the future