Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF), Germany

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is Germany's main airport hub. It is owned by Fraport AG, a public body that is also responsible for running the airport. Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) is the authority responsible for traffic control.

The airport received 56 million passengers in 2005, 54.2 million in 2008, and is the eighth largest airport in the world. It has the second-highest passenger figures in Europe after London Heathrow.

The airport handles 2.09 million metric tons a year of airfreight and airmail, making it one of the most important European hubs. FRA accounts for over 32% of the total German passenger air traffic and for about 63% of the total airfreight traffic.

The airport currently employs around 70,000 people but the completion of the expansion plan will mean the airport will employ an additional 97,000 people. The new airport expansion has required an investment of over €4bn so far.

Runway capacity

The current runway capacity of 80 coordinated take-off and landings each hour falls short of the demand for up to 100 aircraft movements an hour, which other European airports are about to achieve. Other European hubs such as Amsterdam (Schipol), Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and more recently Madrid are already experimenting with hourly movements approaching 120 having already attained 90 movements an hour.

The requirement for expansion has been realised since 1999 and a masterplan was formulated (2000) to meet new capacity demands. By 2015, FRA will be able to serve well over 80 million passengers a year and about 2.8t of air cargo.

New projects

The projects underway since 2005 for expanding capacity at Frankfurt include the construction of a new landing runway, a third passenger terminal (Terminal 3) and a new maintenance hangar for A380 long-haul wide-body aircraft.

Additional projects include a doubling of retail space at terminals 1 and 2 to 20,000m² (completed in 2007) and high-speed rail services. The Airport City Mall (ACM) opened in January 2007 but will be fully open by the end of 2009. Other retail refurbishment projects are underway such as the Airside Marketplace in T2 and the Shopping Plaza in T2 landside. As part of the ongoing development the airport's Sky Line people-mover and central baggage system is undergoing extension to terminal 3, thus ensuring FRA's quick transfer times at the new terminal.

Fraport has made available a total of €3.4bn for the airport expansion programme.

This makes it the most significant privately-financed investment project in Germany, which will have positive effects on the construction industry and medium and small-sized businesses, especially in the Frankfurt / Rhine-Main region.

Terminal 1 expansion

In October 2005 Fraport AG instigated a major expansion of Terminal 1 that has raised the capacity of the main terminal by about four million passengers a year. Both the arrivals and departures levels of hall C were extended about 40m eastward to give a total of 25,000m² of floor space. This allowed for 40 additional check-in counters on two levels and four 90m baggage carousels, as well as about 900m² of space for shopping facilities.

Fraport is investing a total of €115m in the hall C project, including €10m for the new baggage conveyor system. The project also includes modernisation of fire safety technology in adjoining terminal areas.

Planning for this major project started in April 2003 and preliminary work began in July 2005(architectural design by Christoph Mäckler of Frankfurt). Completion of the building shell was achieved in mid 2006 and the inauguration occurred in June 2007. Because of the extra capacity, the enlarged halls will help to bridge capacity requirements until FRA's planned terminal 3 at the south of the airport is ready.

Runway project

The new northwest runway (the fourth at the airport) will be 2,800m (9,240ft) long. The centre-line separation from the existing north runway will be approximately 1,400m (4,620ft). This has the advantage of allowing simultaneous landing operations on these two runways (more operations per hour), something which is not possible on the existing parallel runways because they are not far enough apart.

A parallel taxiway is planned at a distance of 200m (660ft) from the new landing runway. The runway and the parallel taxiway will be connected by six high-speed exit taxiways and one exit taxiway each at the eastern and western ends of the runway. Two taxiway bridges over the ICE high-speed rail line, the A3 autobahn and the airport ring road will connect the new runway and associated taxiways to the airport's existing core airside operations area. The runway will permit all-weather operations and allow ILS Category IIIb approaches.

The site of the new landing runway will be located partly in the Kelsterbach Forest (the Mönchwald), which has caused some concern by environmental groups. Some 217ha (536 acres) of land will be needed for the northwest runway, including the connecting taxiways to the apron. Woodland use will amount to 162ha (400 acres) of protected forest.

The runway is expected to be in service by winter 2011 and will allow the airport to achieve the envisaged capacity goal of 120 movements an hour. The runway was initially due to be in service in 2006-2007; however environmental concerns over a chemical factory held up the process.

In addition there were major objections from the town of Kelsterbach and the BUND (Bund fur Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland), an environmental organisation. In August 2008 following the Hesse Economics Ministry zoning approval for the runway the airport is starting preliminary work for the runway including ground water monitoring, planning for relocation of protected species, surveying for buried munitions from the war and soil testing. The Kassal Administrative court is due to rule soon over the runway construction following fast track proceedings.

New terminal 3

At the end of 2005 the US air base land in the south of Frankfurt Airport reverted to the ownership of Fraport. A new passenger terminal was then planned for construction on the reclaimed site, which will increase the airport's capacity of about 56 million passengers a year (2005) to around 81 million a year.

The design by Professor Christoph Mäckler from Frankfurt was chosen from an international design competition of 45 architects. Some 75 aircraft stands and additional taxiways are to be built to support operations of the new terminal.

In total, some 305ha (754 acres) of land will be needed for the new terminal 3, the associated aircraft positions and taxiways, new freight facilities, maintenance buildings and other facilities such as car parks. Some 188ha (464 acres) of this space can be provided within the existing airport boundary; a further 108ha (267ac) of land outside the fence will also be required for the project.

The new terminal will be built in phases up to 2015, the first scheduled for completion in 2007. Fraport has estimated the costs for the new building at €1.1bn.

The 250m-wide and 16m-high hall of the new steel and glass terminal, housing the check-in desks, is destined to become the airport's modern architectural landmark.

The security procedures will all take place in a separate section after which the passengers will arrive in a large hall containing retail shops.

When complete the terminal will have four airplane fingers of between 350m and 650m long; this will allow 50 aircraft to be comfortably parked at any one time.

The airport's Sky Line people-mover and central baggage system will be extended to terminal 3, thus ensuring quick transfer times at the new terminal. Passengers who arrive from terminal 1 or the long distance railway station in the northern section of the airport will therefore be able to cover the 3.5km stretch to terminal 3 within eight minutes.

In order for the third terminal to be linked to the airport's central baggage system, a tunnel system for luggage has to be built under the two take off and landing runways, using similar mining technology as was used to build the underground railway in Frankfurt itself.

A380 maintenance base

Airbus will commence delivery of the new A380 super-jumbo from 2007. Lufthansa and many other international airlines are planning to operate this new wide-body aircraft from Frankfurt starting from summer 2009. These operations require a new maintenance hangar, which has been built to the south of the airport site (investment €150m). The 22-acre site was handed over to Lufthansa in June 2005 (65-year lease) but a protest by German green environmentalists hampered construction, which started properly in June 2006.

The hangar first phase (approximately 350m long, 140m wide and 45m high with a floor space of 20,000m² was opened in January 2007 by Lufthansa Technik. The facility already offers space for two A380s or three Boeing 747s and when fully completed in 2015 will be capable of accommodating up to four A380 aircraft simultaneously.

The new hangar, which will be Europe's largest aircraft maintenance facility, was designed by Gerkan, Marg & Partner Architects of Hamburg, Germany.

The A380 will fulfil a big role in the future of long-haul air transportation. For hub airports like FRA this means that only those airports served by the A380 will maintain their positions in the premier league of major airports. Lufthansa will operate a fleet of 15 A380s with the first four due to come into service in summer 2009.

Pier C/D changes

In March 2008 the new pier C/D T1 and T2 connecting building was opened for the first time (JSK were the architects). The project took 20 months to complete and required an investment of €340m. This now allows an additional capacity of four million passengers a year and also two-level boarding of 550 passengers a flight ready for the A380.

In addition there is access to the new 90m-long baggage carousels of hall C. Passengers are able to access the new Pier C/D via a 320m-long connecting corridor from the expanded hall C and can then board A380s on two levels. For the A380 there are three docking positions each equipped with three passenger bridges for simultaneous two-level boarding and de boarding. The open and expandable gates of the new pier C/D are over two levels. Where level 2 is for economy passengers, while level 3, with the Senator lounge and business gates, is reserved for priority passengers.

Environmental concerns

The objections to further airport expansion come mainly from environmental grounds. Despite the beneficial economic impact of Frankfurt airport for the regional economy, there is considerable public hostility to further development.

In order to address the concerns of the public towards issues such as aircraft noise and the airport expansion leading to pollution, Fraport developed a ten-point programme, which includes promoting other transportation modes, limiting night flights, funding noise insulation programmes, increasing charges for night time landing, and mandatory introduction of low noise approach and departure procedures at night.

In addition, Fraport introduced the CASA programme, which is a voluntary purchase program for residents around the airport who feel they need to move away from the additional noise and pollution.

Satellite landing system

Frankfurt is making small incremental additions to marginally increase the efficiency of its existing facilities. The airport is introducing a new landing procedure (HALS/DTOP), optimising the taxiing system by the use of new surface movement guidance control systems, improving air traffic control facilities and procedures and installing an SLS 2000 satellite landing system from Honeywell / Pelorus.

The High Approach Landing System / Dual Threshold Operation (HALS/DTOP) will enable the airport to make even more efficient use of the two parallel runways (aligned in the east–west direction) by relocating the landing threshold on the south runway.

To further improve the control and coordination of airport ground movements (taxiing traffic) Fraport is planning to implement the TACSYS taxi and control system which comprises two components: the Cooperative Area Precision Tracking System (CAPTS) and the Electronic Taxiway Navigation Array (ETNA).

CAPTS allows for real-time location and identification of aircraft. ETNA is a navigation and guidance system for all vehicles on the apron. Both systems serve to provide safe surface movement guidance.

The new SLS 2000 satellite landing system will replace the outdated differential GPS precision navigation aid supplied and installed by Daimler-Benz Navigations-und-Flug Systeme (which Honeywell acquired in 1998). The SLS 2000 ground reference station will be used to provide differential GPS position data for the Eurocontrol Sapphire programme, as well as for the RAIM prediction programme that is being developed by the DFS.