Munich Airport sees strong cargo growth in H1 2017

July 06, 2017: Germany’s major gateway Munich Airport has recorded strong cargo growth over the first six months of 2017. The freight segment reported a new all-time high, with a 9 percent year-on-year increase in cargo turnover to approximately 180,000 tonnes.

Munich Airport posted the best half-yearly figures in its history: with the 21 million passengers handled during that period, the airport topped the 20 million mark for the first time.

With the substantial traffic increases, Munich Airport outpaced the industry as a whole in Germany – largely on the strength of a strong performance by the European traffic segment, which showed 8 percent year-on-year increase in total passengers. Meanwhile, passenger traffic in the intercontinental segment and on domestic routes was up by 6 percent and 4 percent, respectively. "Today, 25 years after it opened, Munich Airport is indeed looking stronger than ever before," said Dr. Michael Kerkloh, the airport's president and CEO. He also noted the airport's outstanding prospects going forward.

The future outlook has benefited in particular from three key strategic moves by the Lufthansa Group. First: The airline with the distinctive crane logo on the tail will station the first 15 of its 25 new Airbus A350 widebody jets in Munich. This will yield economic benefits and is also a boon to the environment: In addition to very substantial fuel savings of 25 percent achieved by the A350 as compared with its four-engine predecessor, the Airbus A340, it also has a 50 percent smaller noise footprint on takeoff. Second: When the 2018 summer timetable begins, Lufthansa will have five of its 14 A380 aircraft stationed in Munich for the first time. Bavaria's hub will join London, Paris and Frankfurt to become the fourth European airport to be home to an A380 fleet. The gigantic Airbus will be used on routes to Hong Kong, Beijing and Los Angeles. Third: Coming as a further boost to Munich's competitiveness is the decision by Eurowings to station aircraft here. Since the start of this year's summer timetable, the airport has been the home base for several Eurowings planes serving around 30 destinations in Europe.

"With the foreseeable increases in intercontinental traffic, our high-quality airport will attain a new standard of quality in the coming years. We will then be equally well positioned as a hub across all traffic segments," said Michael Kerkloh.