Frankfurt Airport has been operating at full capacity for years, and the expanded runway system will allow for up to 700,000 aircraft movements per year, compared to the current 500,000.
According to Fraport executive board chairman Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Bender, this will make a high-capacity infrastructure available for the more than three million metric tons of cargo forecast to be handled at Frankfurt Airport in 2020.
Bender sees no reason to fear that the current financial crisis will jeopardise FRA's long-term growth perspectives, because every cyclical traffic decline in the past has been more than offset by rebounds with over-proportionate growth rates. "Globalisation will not only continue but will gather momentum as soon as the crisis has bottomed out," he said.
However, while IATA has welcomed the Hessen State Court's decision to approve construction of a fourth runway and Terminal 3 and Frankfurt's Rhein-Main Airport, it is less enamoured with proposed restriction on night flights.
"Frankfurt is a global hub that needs global connectivity," pointed out IATA director general & CEO Giovanni Bisignani. "Severe restrictions on night flights constrain international cargo operations and will hurt economic growth. This should be reconsidered in a future court ruling."
After an initial all-out ban on night flights, the Hesse government then said it would allow seventeen flights per day between 23h30 and 05h00.
Lufthansa wanted more, and asked for 41 night flights. In June 2008, Lufthansa Cargo began construction on its new freight centre in Cargo City South at Frankfurt Airport, but said it would only go ahead with plans to build a new cargo centre in the north of the airport when the legal ruling on viable night flights was issued.
Lufthansa already has extensive operations at Leipzig/Halle - where there are no such restrictions, and at Munich - where night flight restrictions are more lenient.
With litigation pending in terms of night flights, Hessen will review the ruling.
IATA's Bisignani said that the aviation industry takes its environmental responsibilities seriously, with aircraft now 70% more fuel-efficient and 75% quieter than they were forty years ago, which greatly reduces both emissions and noise.
