Munich might be Germany’s second airport, but when that means handling more than 18 million passengers in the first half of this year, it’s a position that many European airports would love to be in.
In fact, the airport clocked 18.6 million passengers during the first six months of 2013, and its operator Flughafen München Gmbh (FMG) believes it could be on track to notch up its busiest-ever year – no small achievement at a time when Europe’s economy remains sluggish.
“Last year, we ended up with 38.4 million passengers,” says senior vice president, business division aviation, Andreas von Puttkamer. “We are expecting another 600,000 this year, bringing our total to 39 million passengers.”
Von Puttkamer adds air traffic movements have dropped in the past three years, due to airlines opting for larger aircraft. This is evident in load factor figures, which reached a record 74% from January to June this year, despite ATMs dropping to 190,000.
Growing market
As Germany’s economic performance continues to steam ahead with 0.9% year-on-year growth in Q2 – Bavaria in particular continues to enjoy economic success. Representing 18% of the country’s GDP, the “high-tech centre of Europe” continues to lead over other parts of Germany.
Munich is keen to capitalise on these growth figures and is looking to expand its long-haul network, particularly to emerging markets.
Lufthansa is the airport’s largest airline, followed by airberlin, Condor, TUIfly and then easyJet. Lufthansa is currently undergoing a high-profile cost-cutting programme, which inevitably has impacted its key hubs.
This winter, Lufthansa opted to axe Singapore from its winter schedule at Munich, but the airport operator points to other network positives. These include the German flag carrier ramping up Riyadh to four flights a week this winter, up from the three flights a week since it was introduced in 2010. And von Puttkamer hopes this capacity increase is a sign of the potential for other new route launches from Lufthansa in the not-too-distant future.
“With Lufthansa as our partner, especially for transfer passengers, we’re expecting many more long-haul destinations when we are through the economic crisis.
“Germany is doing very well – way ahead of other European countries – but Lufthansa is undergoing some cost-cutting programmes for the years 2014 and 2015,” says von Puttkamer. “After that, we expect an increase, especially in its long-haul fleet.”
Looking for long-haul
This winter, Munich’s network is made up of 15 domestic, 127 medium-range and 47 intercontinental routes, and von Puttkamer is particularly keen to see more long-haul services added to the network.
“We are well covered with our European network,” he explains. “We have more weekly frequencies across Europe than Frankfurt, for example, and we still see good potential into Eastern European countries. However, we are a little bit underserved on the long-haul side.”
With around 15% of Munich’s passengers being long-haul travellers, von Puttkamer believes the airport is underserved to South and Central America, as well as Africa.
He hopes at least one part of that puzzle will soon fit into place.
“We’re currently in very close talks with Ethiopian Airlines. It was already planning to fly to Munich this year, but it couldn’t get the traffic rights. We’re working on that and we’re expecting to have a daily flight to Addis Ababa next year,” he says.
Another major win for the airport was Condor’s return to Munich last winter, after a six-year hiatus. The operator now serves the leisure long-haul points of Cancun, Goa, Mauritius, Mombasa, Santa Clara and Punta Cana.
There are also hopes Emirates could expand its A380 operation, after the carrier announced a second superjumbo service for the end of October – albeit only temporarily.
On the medium- and short-haul front, Royal Air Maroc commenced service to Casablanca in October, while Turkish Airlines plans to begin daily flights to Istanbul’s Sabiha-Gökcen at the end of January, to complement its existing Atatürk services.
Other short-haul additions to the timetable from October included Norwegian launching Alicante, Malaga, Gran Canaria and Tenerife services, while Air Lituanica introduced three flights a week to Vilnius.
Terminal upgrade
With Munich’s air services team hard at work securing new routes, infrastructure plans are also being pushed ahead to ensure the airport is well-placed for future growth.
In June this year, the airport celebrated the 10th anniversary of T2 and during September, it commemorated the topping out of the terminal’s new satellite facility.
The project started in April 2012 and is due to open in 2015 – increasing T2’s existing 25mppa capacity by an additional 11 million passengers.
As with the main terminal itself, the €650 million satellite is designed by Koch + Partner and is the joint responsibility – split 60/40 – of FMG and Lufthansa.
Located above the baggage sorting hall on the east apron, the 600m-long pier will provide 52 gates; 27 aircraft stands (more than doubling T2’s existing amount); 24 transfer desks; and 42 passport control stations.
It will also have five Lufthansa lounges and 9,000sqm of food, beverage and retail units.
The satellite will be connected to the main terminal via an underground Bombardier personal transportation system, capable of handling up to 9,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
Plans for a third runway are also in motion.
Although the Upper Bavarian government issued planning permission for the runway in July 2011, von Puttkamer explains FMG is waiting for a court decision following public appeal before beginning construction.
He says the go-ahead is expected at the start of 2014, and a new 4,000m by 60m runway could arrive by the end of the decade. The project would give Munich 30 additional ATMs per hour, easing the already-stretched capacity of 90 movements per hour on the airport’s two existing runways.
With additional capacity on the horizon for the future and Bavaria’s economy set to continue to grow, FMG is enthusiastic about future success.
“We’re working to become even better,” says von Puttkamer. “We’re working to become a five-star airport.”
This article features in Routes News 2013 Issue 7