North Germany’s gateway

A hundred years ago, on the site that is today home to one of Europe’s most modern airports, there stood a single, two-door airship hangar. By the end of the 1920s, a modern terminal building was already making its mark on the city of Hamburg. Today, Hamburg Airport greets arriving tourists and business travellers with its futuristic glass and steel architecture, a unique advertisement for the city. In total, we have invested around €350 million in the expansion programme, an expansion programme that is the largest project of its kind ever to be seen at the airport.

Some of the milestones in the construction of the new Hamburg Airport were the completion of the two state-of-the-art passenger terminals and the airport plaza with a central security checkpoint, the extension of the passenger pier, the installation of a dynamic parking guidance system, the creation of additional parking spaces, the S-Bahn (metro rail network) connection to downtown Hamburg and the construction of the Radisson BLU Hotel Hamburg Airport, directly opposite the terminals.

In 2010, Hamburg Airport set a new record for passenger volume, with 12.96 million passengers passing through the terminal. This is around 730,000 passengers more than in 2009. The growth in passenger numbers was primarily the result of the deployment of larger aircraft and a better average load factor. On average, we counted around 35,000 passengers per day in 2010. Aircraft movements averaged 430 per day. Air freight continued to grow, too, with air cargo shipped at Hamburg Airport, excluding airmail and transit, growing by 11.2 per cent to 71,582 tonnes in 2010.

Hamburg has almost 250 businesses based at the airport employing approximately 15,000 staff. Flughafen Hamburg GmbH alone has a workforce of more than 1,600. Training is an important factor at Hamburg Airport where around 50 young people are being trained in three administrative and four industrial/ technical occupations; Aviation Customer Service Officer, Clerk, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Computer Technician, Industrial Mechanic, Automotive Mechatronics Technician and Industrial Electronics Technician.

Airport 2030

From its earliest beginnings to the present day, Hamburg has developed into an innovative, state-of-the-art centre of air travel. The Airport is often at the forefront when it comes to improvement in aviation safety, operational procedures and environmental protection. Research is currently being conducted into the future of aviation as part of the ‘Airport 2030’ project. ‘Airport 2030’ is one of three flagship projects being supported by the Federal Government with €40 million of funding spread over five years.

Experts from various working groups are focusing on questions such as; “What requirements will airports of the future have to fulfill?”, “How can the process of loading and unloading an aircraft be made faster and more precise?”, “Which innovative propulsion technologies are suited to civil aviation?” and “What are we likely to see in terms of new maintenance concepts?”

Passenger information should also be improved by means of contemporary digital communications. Since the start of June, the Hamburg Airport ‘App’ has been available for download in the App Store. At the heart of the app is the ‘My Flight’ button. With this button, the user can enter a flight number and retrieve all the important details of the flight at any time. The button works for both departures and arrivals. Short notice changes to gates or landing times, for example, will be displayed quickly and simply on the screen. The Hamburg Airport ‘App’ is available in German, English and Danish and has been designed to work on iPhones as well as smartphones using the Android operating system.

The changing face of ATC

Another example of innovation at Hamburg Airport is the revolutionary surface situation presentation system, A-SMGCS (Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System). Hamburg Airport is one of the first airports in Europe where the A-SMGCS ground radar is already in operation. A-SMGCS supports the work of apron controllers with optimised visual representation of the airport, which then contributes to increased security in ground traffic control and facilitates more efficient traffic management. A-SMGCS enables the airport to reduce airside emissions by a total of 10 per cent. The new surface traffic guidance system developed out of the successful co-operation between Hamburg Airport and both German Air Traffic Services (DFS) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).

Test operation of body scanners

Since the end of September 2010, every passenger passing through Hamburg Airport has been able to choose one of the two body scanners or a traditional gate sensor. The new body scanners were installed at the airport by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Police and are currently undergoing a thorough field test. This test is currently scheduled to run until the end of July 2011. By using millimetre (dwarf) waves, which are between microwaves and infra-red on the frequency scale, it is possible to determine if a passenger is carrying objects in or under his/her clothing. In contrast to the classical gate sensors, the body scanners can also detect non-metallic objects. Once inside the device, the passenger holds his/her arms above the head for three seconds. On a screen, the security personnel sees an abstract pictogram – similar to a stick figure – which shows where a manual secondary inspection is necessary. By the end of March 2011, around 480,000 passengers had already made use of the new technology. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 90 per cent of these passengers consider the body scanner to be a more suitable measure to improve the security of air travel.

A partner in Lufthansa’s biofuel test

Germany’s Lufthansa is pushing forward in the realm of alternative fuels for civil aviation. The airline’s test of biofuels in regular flight operations is due to commence this year. Hamburg Airport was chosen as the refuelling location. For six months, a Lufthansa Airbus A321 will fly between Hamburg Airport and Frankfurt using biofuel. One of the aircraft’s two engines will run on a 50:50 mixture of normal kerosene and biofuel. The other engine will run on kerosene as normal. Refuelling will take place exclusively in Hamburg. The biofuel, from Finland, will be brought to the Port of Hamburg by ship and then transported to Hamburg Airport in a road tanker. During aircraft turnaround, two refuelling vehicles will operate on the aircraft at the same time. The aim of the six-month test, with around 1,400 flights, is to investigate the effect of biofuels on the maintenance and lifetime of engines and to analyse the effect on CO2 emissions.

Alternative energy in action

Alternative fuels in the form of hydrogen and biogas have been in use on Hamburg Airport’s aprons and in the baggage cellar for a considerable period of time. In 2005, when SCHOPF ROFAN GmbH developed their prototype natural gas-powered baggage tug, Hamburg Airport was amongst the first to place an order. Today, all 42 baggage tugs and eight passenger buses at Hamburg Airport are powered almost exclusively by 100 per cent biogas from EON Hanse Vertrieb. Refuelling takes place on-site at the airport’s own refuelling station. The capacity of the gas refuelling station on the apron was doubled at the start of 2011. The current total capacity is approximately 400 kg. An extra filling pump has also been installed, meaning that two buses can now be refuelled with biogas at the same time. Hamburg Airport has also tested the use of hydrogen technology in practice, with two test baggage tugs. The city of Hamburg, KION Group, Still GmbH and Linde Group were partners in the test programme. A hydrogen refuelling station was built at the airport especially for the purpose. After a test phase of around two years, the result is clear. In terms of performance and refuelling time, the two hydrogen-powered tugs are comparable with the natural gas-powered tugs. Furthermore, three electric cars are currently in action on the Hamburg Airport site as part of a test project, where the airport is one of the participating companies in the Federal Government’s ‘Electric Mobility Pilot Region’ funding programme.

Airport Carbon Accreditation

In mid-January 2011, the airport joined the ranks of the Airport Carbon Accreditation, an international environmental certification system with several levels administered by the airports association, ACI Europe. There are four different levels of accreditation. At the first level, the airport calculates its CO2 footprint, which is then verified by an independent assessor as part of the environmental programme. At level two – the level of Hamburg Airport’s certification – the calculated carbon footprint is accompanied by the development and implementation of measures to reduce CO2 emissions. Hamburg Airport has committed to achieving a 15 per cent reduction in CO2 by the year 2020. At the third level, third parties such as airlines are also involved in the certification. The expansion of measures to achieve neutral levels of CO2 makes up the fourth level. Hamburg Airport has already reduced its CO2 emissions on the ground by around 12,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to the annual output of 5,800 medium-sized cars. In summer 2009, the airport was awarded the state of Schleswig-Holstein’s ‘Economic Environmental Prize’ for its commitment to a greener environment.

Service

Alongside innovative concepts and pro – grammes, service quality for our customers and passengers is a key priority. Hamburg Airport continually trains its personnel these efforts have been rewarded when at the end of March 2011, we received the Skytrax World Airport Award 2011 for the category ‘Best Regional Airport Europe’. We also achieved third place worldwide, closely behind Zürich and Copenhagen, in the category for ‘Best Airport for Baggage Delivery’. These prizes are special because they are judged and decided by passengers alone.

About the Author

Michael Eggenschwiler is CEO of Flughafen Hamburg GmbH. Born in Basel, he commenced his studied at the University of St. Gallen in 1977. In 1983 he began his career as an assistant to the executive board at the Swiss airline, Crossair, in Zurich. Eight years later, having reached the executive board himself, he departed Crossair for Swissair. He extended his qualifications with studies at Stanford University in California in 1994. In 2002 Michael Eggenschwiler left Swissair to become a partner in the management consultancy MAB Consulting in St. Gallen. In 2003 he was appointed to the executive board of Hamburg Airport, where he has served as CEO since 2005.