FRA's New Runway Northwest: Fraport AG Inaugurates Fourth Runway at Frankfurt Airport / Speech by Dr. Stefan Schulte, Executive Board Chairman of Fraport AG

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Multimedia News Release (MNR)
http://ots.de/5fRzX
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Frankfurt (ots) -

FRA/rap> The landing of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's
government plane on the new Runway Northwest on October 21, 2011,
marked the inauguration of Fraport AG's fourth runway at Frankfurt
Airport (FRA). The inauguration of the 2,800 meter-long runway will
secure the future of Germany's leading gateway for international
mobility. Attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hesse Prime
Minister Volker Bouffier, Frankfurt am Main Lord Mayor Petra Roth,
Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz and other business and political
leaders, the inauguration guests were welcomed by Dr. Stefan Schulte,
executive board chairman of Fraport AG, who stressed the importance
of this infrastructure investment for Germany's export-oriented
economy:

"Dear Chancellor,
Dear Minister Ramsauer,
Dear Parliamentary Secretary Prof. Scheurle,
Dear Mr. Wichtel,

I welcome you warmly to Frankfurt Airport. Indeed, it is a great
pleasure to have you here as the first guests to land on our new
Runway Northwest. Your landing marks the successful conclusion of one
the largest infrastructure projects in Germany. With your "first
flight", you have officially inaugurated our new runway.

This new runway will allow Frankfurt Airport finally to overcome
its capacity constraints and to offer the international aviation
industry growth opportunities once again. Equally important, finally
we will be able to deliver our airlines and passengers even better
punctuality and quality of service now.

Frankfurt Airport is by far the largest airport in Germany and one
of Europe's major hubs for passengers and cargo tonnage. We are the
largest hub for Deutsche Lufthansa and the Star Alliance. Some 40
percent of our traffic is in the intercontinental segment, two-thirds
of all intercontinental traffic in and out of Germany flies via FRA.

This underscores the real function of our airport: to serve as the
gateway to the world for Germany and the German economy. No other
airport in Germany can take over this function, which is why the
expansion of Frankfurt Airport is so important to the country and to
the economy of Hesse and Germany. But to maintain this role, we also
need the right framework conditions, politically as well as legally.
Urgently and very soon, we need a pragmatic ruling - which is
absolutely normal throughout our industry - for delayed departure
flights that need to take off in the night hours, just like at every
other airport. We cannot have a situation whereby a fully loaded
Airbus A380 is forced to stay on the ground and unload its passengers
just because its departure slot has been delayed one minute past
23:00.

Furthermore, our role as Germany's "Gateway to the World" is the
reason why we are so concerned about the nighttime ban being imposed
on us by the Hesse Administrative High Court. Basically, this is
because of the importance of overnight operations for cargo in an
international economy that is increasingly organized via the global
division of labor; but also in particular because the temporary ban
comes at such short notice just before the start of the new Winter
Timetable. This is all the more reason why a final decision on the
nighttime issue needs to be made quickly by the German Federal
Administrative Court in Leipzig - one that takes into account the
interests of both the noise-blighted region as well as the airlines
operating worldwide. Let me reiterate that compared to the 40 to 50
nighttime flights that we currently have between 23:00 and 05.00, it
will certainly be noticeably quieter.

We are well aware of just how important it is to take into account
the interests of residents and to control the noise burden in our
region. We all have a responsibility. And we must diligently
continue the efforts that we - the airlines, the politicians, the
communities, the Aircraft Noise Commission, DFS German Air Navigation
Services and Fraport - have started via the Forum Airport and Region
with initiatives such as the first Active Noise Abatement package,
the new Noise Index and the Study of the Effects of Noise.

This involves monitoring aircraft noise and flight movements,
investigating various measures to reduce noise, and optimizing flight
movements. The task force that has been deployed here is the right
path to take. The next steps have to be taken consistently.

The importance of dialog and of clear and transparent
communication about infrastructure projects is underscored by FRA's
expansion. In this case, many of the right things have been done.
Together, we have set national standards by creating the Mediation
Group, by continuing these discussions in the Regional Dialog Forum
and now via the Forum Airport and Region, and by seeking the broad
involvement of society as well as political support across party
lines.

The results over many years of this continuous dialog in the
various forums can be seen: Airport expansion continues to receive
wide support from the majority of the population - naturally in
tandem with the demand for further success in achieving noise
reduction.

At our Happy Landings celebration this summer more than 200,000
citizens got to experience the new runway first-hand. This also shows
the high acceptance for airport expansion in our region.

Ladies and gentlemen, there much more that can be said, but stay
on schedule I am pleased to pass on the word to our honored guests.

Finally, to all of you who are frequent flyers, particularly our
colleagues in the air transportation business, I would like to wish
safe operations on this new runway and "always happy landings".

Thank you."

More information:
http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prne/fraport/52150/

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide
Robert A. Payne, B.A.A. - Senior Mgr. International Press & PR
International Spokesman, Press Office (Dept. UKM-PS),
Corporate Communications, 60547 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Tel.: +49 69.690.78547; E-mail: r.payne@fraport.de;
Internet: http://www.fraport.com