Frankfurt Airport Expansion Enrages Residents – December 2007
Frankfurt airport, one of the world’s biggest hubs, has received the go-ahead to build a new terminal and runway. The regional government says the €4 billion expansion will create 40,000 jobs. But residents and environmental groups are furious at a decision to allow night flights, and plan a wave of lawsuits. Horst Schneider, mayor of the Frankfurt-area city of Offenbach, said the increased noise of aircraft landing and taking off will hit his community especially hard. “We will use all legal means, right up to the EU level if necessary,” he said. Schneider said some 150,000 people will be negatively affected by the expansion. Unlike protected animal species, people couldn’t simply be moved elsewhere, he said.(Spiegel Online)
19.12.2007 (Spiegel Online)
The Frankfurt airport, one of the world’s biggest hubs, has received the go-ahead
to build a new terminal and runway. The regional government says the €4 billion
expansion will create 40,000 jobs. But residents and environmental groups are
furious at a decision to allow night flights, and plan a wave of lawsuits.
Environmental groups, city councils and residents near Frankfurt Airport – Europe’s
third busiest, behind London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle – are planning
lawsuits after Tuesday’s decision by the regional government to allow construction
of a fourth runway and a third terminal.
Horst Schneider, mayor of the Frankfurt-area city of Offenbach, said the increased
noise of aircraft landing and taking off will hit his community especially hard.
“We will use all legal means, right up to the EU level if necessary,” he said.
Schneider said some 150,000 people will be negatively affected by the expansion.
Unlike protected animal species, people couldn’t simply be moved elsewhere, he
said.
He’s not alone. Environmental groups and local authorities around the airport
are planning legal action and are especially angry that the Hesse regional government
broke its promise to ban night flights as part of the airport expansion.
“Residents have been misled for years,” said Brigitte Martin, spokeswoman for
environmental group BUND. The government had “thrown down the gauntlet” to the
local population, she said. The opposition Social Democrats in the Hesse state
parliament said they were also considering legal action.
Hesse’s Economy Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had given Fraport, the
airport operator, the green light for the €4 billion expansion to ease capacity
bottlenecks. “Only through this will Frankfurt remain one of the eight most important
air transport hubs in the world,” said Hesse’s Economy Minister, Alois Rhiel.
In giving approval to the project, the Hesse government said it would allow 17
flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night, giving priority to cargo flights.
Airlines had asked for more, and holiday airline Condor said the total ban on
passenger services between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. was a “bitter pill” for the company.
German national carrier Deutsche Lufthansa, which owns almost 10 percent of Fraport,
had called for permission for 41 flights a night.
Rhiel said the expansion would create 40,000 jobs by 2020. He said night flights
had to be allowed because of Frankfurt’s importance as an international cargo
and passenger hub. Besides, a ban would probably not have been legally enforcable
following court rulings allowing them at the airports of Munich and Leipzig.
The project will entail removing 282 hectares of forest and resettling a variety
of protected animals.
Hesse Prime Minister Roland Koch, who faces a tough regional election on Jan.
27, said failure to expand Frankfurt would have been “a disaster for the region.”
Frankfurt Airport is expected to handle some 54 million passengers this year,
but says it needs more capacity to cope with an expected 88 million passengers
in 2020 as passenger numbers grow some 3.5 percent annually.
Demand for aircraft take-offs and landings is likely to rise to about 700,000
by 2020 from 489,000 in 2006, Fraport has said. Cargo and mail tonnage carried
is also expected to increase more than 70 percent, to 3.16 million metric tonnes
in 2020.
The German state of Hesse owns 31.6 percent of Fraport, while the city of Frankfurt
holds 20 percent of the stock. Fraport Chief Executive Wilhelm Bender said he
was confident the airport will win upcoming court cases brought by opponents of
the expansion.
The new runway to the northwest of Frankfurt Airport is due to come into operation
by 2011.
The third terminal to the south of the airport, which will raise the airport’s
current capacity of 56 million passengers annually by 25 million, is expected
to be completed around 2013/14.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,524279,00.html
and
more details on the Frankfurt Airport website:
http://www.ausbau.fraport.com/cms/default/rubrik/15/15194.htm