At a gala reception attended by more than 150 guests, the operating company, partners and users of Munich Airport celebrated the upcoming 20th anniversary of the airport's first day of operations. After the historical night of the airport's move from Munich-Riem to the Erdinger Moos region, the new airport opened punctually and without a hitch on May 17, 1992. "The start of the new airport was an enormous promise to the future – and this promise has been more than fulfilled," said Dr. Michael Kerkloh, the CEO of FMG, the Munich Airport operating company, addressing the reception guests.

Kerkloh went on to explain that, in its first 20 years, Munich Airport has achieved growth far exceeding the industry average, and added that the main driving force behind its rise has been its functional transformation into an international air traffic hub.

With the rapid growth in traffic in Munich, the new airport quickly moved up in the standings of Europe's business passenger airports, rising to sixth place in 2011, its highest ranking so far. Even more impressive than the traffic statistics is Munich's popularity with passengers. Over the past eight global passenger surveys conducted by Skytrax, the respected London-based aviation consultancy, the Bavarian hub has earned the title of Europe's Best Airport six times and has twice ranked second.

Since it opened, Bavaria's gateway to the world has handled nearly 500 million passengers. To put this figure into perspective: after just 20 years of operation, the new airport has already handled about three times as many passengers as the old Munich-Riem Airport saw in its entire history from 1949 until it closed on May 16, 1992.

Annual growth in passenger traffic has averaged 6 percent during the airport's first two decades. This is significantly higher than the average increases posted by all other German airports during the same period (3.7 percent). Munich has also experienced above average gains in take-offs and landings. During the 20 years at the new location, the number of aircraft movements has passed the 6.5 million mark and increased at an average annual rate of 4 percent. The volume of airfreight handled over the first 20 operating years adds up to 3.1 million tonnes, and has shown an impressive average annual growth rate of 7.3 percent.

In line with its dynamic traffic growth, Munich Airport is constantly gaining power as a motor of the economy and “job generator”. In its inaugural year, the airport provided employment for 12,000 people. Today the 550 companies and public authorities employ a total workforce of more than 30,000. Because each new job at the airport results in another job being created in the surrounding region, the airport's impact on employment can be felt far beyond the perimeter fence.

Looking ahead to the future, airport CEO Dr. Michael Kerkloh expects the 20-year success story of Munich Airport to continue: "Thanks to our airport's successful development over the past two decades, it now has the opportunity to take a significant share in the anticipated growth in the coming years, and thus to ensure that Munich and Bavaria maintain their excellent links to the global air transportation network. With the Terminal 2 satellite facility and the planned third runway, we are putting ourselves in a position to seize this opportunity."

Munich airport, 18/05/2012

Safety is number one priority: Technical issues concerning fire protection installations make deferral of opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport necessary

New Berlin Brandenburg Airport will commence operations after summer holiday period

The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport will open later than planned. This con-clusion was reached by the airport operator in view of the latest findings gathered over the past few days. Up until now the project leadership team was convinced to be able to meet the deadline of the opening on 3 June, also with regard to the technical requirements concerning safety. Following several crisis meetings over the weekend, the project leadership team has reached the conclusion that the completion and subsequent acceptance tests of certain safety relevant installations was no longer possible by the planned opening date. The airport operating company therefore decided to change course 27 days before the planned opening to prevent any potential shortcomings in the area of safety.

In view of these developments, the airport operating company has decided to take the following steps:

• Preliminarily putting a stop to the move of air traffic from Schönefeld and Tegel to BER
• Deferral of the opening of the new airport until after the summer holi-day period

Recently the planned inauguration of the airport on 3 June 2012 has be-come a race against time, and at the moment 7,000 construction workers are currently working on Europe’s largest airport construction site. The Open Days on 12 and 13 May which were planned some time ago are not affected by the deferral of the opening date.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport 08.05.2012

Air passenger transport in the EU27 in 2010
Highest growth in number of passengers in Copenhagen, Vienna, Milan and Rome airports

In 2010, London/Heathrow remained the EU’s busiest passenger airport, with 66 million passengers handled, down by 0.2% compared with 2009. Paris/Charles de Gaulle (58 mn, +0.5%) and Frankfurt/Main (53 mn, +4.1%) were the second and third busiest airports, followed by Madrid/Barajas (50 mn, +3.9%) and Amsterdam/Schiphol (45 mn, +3.7%). Nine of the top 30 airports registered decreases in the number of passengers handled in 2010, with Dublin (-10.1%) showing the largest fall, followed by London/Stansted (-7.0%), Manchester and Athinai (both -5.2%). The largest increases were observed in København/Kastrup (+9.1%), Wien/Schwechat (+8.7%), Milano/Malpensa (+7.9%) and Roma/Fiumicino (+7.6%).

London/Heathrow (39 mn) handled the most extra-EU passengers, Amsterdam/Schiphol (25 mn) the most intra-EU passengers and Madrid/Barajas (19 mn) the most national passengers.

These figures are published in a report1 from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on air transport in the EU27 in 2010. This report also looks in detail at national, intra-EU and extra-EU air transport of passengers and freight, as well as the most important airport pairs within the EU27.

Gradual slow down of the growth in the number of air passengers
In 2010, nearly 777 million passengers2 were transported by air in the EU27, split into 323 million passengers on intra-EU flights, 291 million on extra-EU flights and 163 million on national flights. Quarterly data show a decrease in air passenger transport in the second quarter of 2010 (-1.3% compared with the second quarter of 2009), due to the Icelandic volcanic eruption. Growth returned in the third quarter of 2010 with passenger number up by 5.8% compared with corresponding period of the previous year. Since then however, there has been a gradual slow down of the growth, air passenger transport increasing by 5.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010 and by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2011.

Detailed figures: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAct ... anguage=fr

1. Air passenger figures have been calculated excluding double counting of national and intra-EU passenger transport, i.e. not counting the same passengers twice, once reported by the origin airport as departures and once by the partner airport as arrivals. Since the EU27 aggregate excludes double counting on intra-EU traffic, Member States' figures do not add up to the EU27 aggregate. For example, a person flying from Paris to London will be counted in France as a ‘departure passenger’ and in the United Kingdom as an ‘arrival passenger’ but only once at EU27 level.

2. Air transport at airports in the Member States with a total transport of more than 150 000 passengers carried in 2010 is covered.

Eurostat press release 14/05/2012

Passenger traffic in first 20 years triples 43-year total at the old location

On its 20th anniversary, Munich Airport can look back at an unparalleled success story. In the two decades since opening on May 17, 1992, the airport's rapid growth has led to a relentless rise in the rankings of European airports, culminating – so far – in a number six ranking among Europe's top 10 airports in 2011. Even more impressive than the traffic statistics is Munich's popularity with passengers. Over the past eight years, the Bavarian hub has earned the title of Europe's Best Airport six times in the global passenger survey conducted by Skytrax, the respected London-based aviation consultancy, and has twice ranked second.

Since it opened, Bavaria's gateway to the world has handled nearly 500 million passengers. To put this figure into perspective: after just 20 years of operation, the new airport has already handled about three times as many passengers as the old Munich-Riem Airport saw in its entire history from 1949 until it closed on May 16, 1992.

Annual growth in passenger traffic has averaged 6 percent during the airport's first two decades. This is significantly higher than the average increases posted by all other German airports during the same period (3.7 percent). Munich has also experienced above average gains in take-offs and landings. During the 20 years at the new location, the number of aircraft movements has passed the 6.5 million mark and increased at an average annual rate of 4 percent. The volume of airfreight handled over the first 20 operating years adds up to 3.1 million tonnes, and has shown an impressive average annual growth rate of 7.3 percent.

One of the main driving factors behind the unrivalled success of Munich Airport is its development into one of Europe's leading hubs. It began in the mid-1990s with the decision by Lufthansa to station two long-haul aircraft in Munich for the first time. That marked the start of a steady expansion in hub traffic in Munich. The percentage of passengers changing planes in Munich has more than tripled from 12 percent in 1992 to 40 percent today. Lufthansa now operates a fleet of 125 aircraft in Munich, including 24 wide body jets for intercontinental traffic. The thriving hub traffic at Munich Airport benefits in particular the people and the economy of Bavaria by providing them with fast and direct access to 241 destinations in 70 countries around the world.

With Terminal 2, which Munich Airport has jointly operated with Lufthansa since the summer of 2003, and the satellite terminal currently under construction and due for completion in 2015, the airport’s annual passenger handling capacity will rise to 50 million. Now it is an urgent priority to move forward decisively with the expansion of the runway system. For some time now, the two existing runways, which have a capacity of 90 schedulable aircraft movements per hour, have been fully "booked up" during peak periods.
In line with its dynamic traffic growth, Munich Airport is constantly gaining power as a motor of the economy and “job generator”. In its inaugural year, Munich Airport provided employment for 12,000 people. Today the 550 companies and public authorities employ a total workforce of more than 30,000. Because each new job at the airport results in another job being created in the surrounding region, the airport's impact on employment can be felt far beyond the perimeter fence.

In addition to the dense network of European routes – with more European destinations than any other airport – passengers at Munich Airport have an attractive range of intercontinental destinations available to them. The number of weekly take-offs and landings to intercontinental destinations – such as New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Tokyo – has increased fivefold, from 52 to 278, since the start of hub development in 1995. By establishing excellent connections to the world-wide air transport route map, Munich Airport now yields significant competitive advantages for the entire southern German economy in global competition among regions. The new satellite terminal and the planned third runway will create the necessary conditions to enable Munich Airport to continue serving as a reliable infrastructure facility and job engine for the state of Bavaria and city of Munich in the future.

Flughafen München GmbH (FMG) Corporate Communication, May 11, 2012

Brussels South Charleroi Airport registered a total of 591,930 passengers in April. This represents an increase of 17% compared to the 504,030 passengers registered in the same month last year.

The increase is explained by the beginning of the summer season, which means the start of typical summer destinations and frequency increase on several existing routes, and also the launch of 10 new destinations such as Nice, Munich (Memmingen), Corfu and Rodez (France).

Compared to April 2011, the most successful destinations in terms of passenger growth are Thessaloniki, Lamezia (both operated by Ryanair) and Belgrade (Wizzair).

This passenger growth was principally registered during off-peak hours, therefore it fits perfectly into the airport’s strategy to focus on manageable growth, in accordance to the airport’s current operational constraints.

BSCA 11/05/2012