Fraport AG Submits Zoning Application for A380 Maintenance Base at Frankfurt

Lufthansa Plans to Station Its A380 Superjumbo Fleet atFrankfurt Airport - Ensuring Sustainability of FRA's HubPosition and Future Competitiveness

Frankfurt, Germany (PROTEXT/ots) - Fraport AG has submitteda zoning application to the responsible hearing authority - thePresident of the Darmstadt administrative district - for theconstruction of a maintenance base for the Airbus A380superjumbo at Frankfurt Airport (FRA). After notifying aviationauthorities in December 2002 of this planned expansion project,Fraport (the owner and manager of FRA) has now been informed bythe Hesse Ministry of Economy, Transportation and StateDevelopment that the project requires a zoning procedure(project approval procedure).

"We already assumed in December 2002 that a zoning procedurewould be required," said Prof. Manfred Schölch, vice chairman ofFraport's executive board. "Therefore, all planning documents,expert opinions and other documents attached to our pre-planningnotification, were prepared in the quality and depth requiredfor a zoning procedure." The President of the Darmstadtadministrative district will now check whether the submittedapplication documents are complete and, thereafter, initiate theactual zoning procedure by publishing Fraport's application inthe official gazette.

"We urge the fastest possible realization of thismaintenance facility. This does not have anything to do withFrankfurt Airport's planned and urgently required capacityexpansion through construction of another runway," said Schölch."We want to and will make Frankfurt Airport ready for this newgeneration of aircraft - and thus we will strengthen FrankfurtAirport's hub position and provide for its sustainable future.Lufthansa, our main customer, also requires such planningsecurity for its own A380 fleet of at least 15 aircraft in thelong term, which it wants to station at FRA starting in 2007."Because the A380 will go into operation irrespective of FRA'snecessary capacity expansion, Fraport has kept the A380 zoningprocedure separate from planning for the new landing runway. Referring to official data of Lufthansa and Airbus Industrie,Fraport's vice chairman emphasized that the A380 was quieter andless polluting during take-off and landing than the Boeing B747-400, currently the world's largest passenger aircraft. "Incontrast, the flight profiles correspond to the B747-400,"explained Schölch. "Airbus Industrie designed the A380 to havethe same climb performance as Boeing. The A380's approach forlandings is defined by an instrument landing system (ILS) glidepath. Like any other aircraft, the A380 follows a glide pathangle of three degrees."

Fraport AG expects that the zoning procedure for the A380maintenance base will be concluded in 2003. "We have really doneour homework and made thorough preparations," said Schölch."That's why this relatively short time span is realistic." Thedocuments submitted with the zoning application essentiallyincluded technical plans for the maintenance areas (including thearea for a warehouse, the taxiway to the existing runway system)and for relocating Okrifteler Strasse in this area, as well as atotal of 14 expert opinions.

The existing runway system will not be modified. Accordingto findings of an international working group, runwaymodifications will not be necessary at FRA to accommodate theA380. ots Original Text Service: Fraport AG Internet:http://www.presseportal.de For More Information, Please Contact: Fraport AG FrankfurtAirport Services Worldwide Attn: Robert A. Payne - ManagerInternational Press 60547 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel.: +49 69690 -78547 Fax: +49 69 690 -60548 E-Mail: r.payne@fraport.deInternet: www.fraport.com

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