Germany’s changing airport infrastructure: the prospects for ‘newcomer’ airports attempting market entry

Abstract

Despite fluctuations for economic or political reasons, the number of passengers and volume of cargo carried by air is growing quickly, leading to a shortage of airport capacity in some European regions with few slots available at some hubs. This problem has accelerated the trend towards an increase in airport capacity for larger aircraft everywhere, a process which started in the UK and is now continuing throughout Europe, especially in Germany. Apart from development at the hubs, however, many small airports have also been enlarged, former military airbases have been converted to civilian use, and new runways are to be built in areas away from centres of population. These changes have occurred within a short period of time. In Germany, the number of available airports with runways over 1800 m will have doubled in a period of 10-15 years.

Ready for take-off? The economic effects of regional airport expansions in Germany

“…This is different from regional policy measures specifically designed to compensate for disadvantages of the targeted regions. As Behnen (2004) points out, the reform not only caused a revolution in the sky but also, especially in Germany, on the ground. Germany implemented the regulation as late as possible in the beginning of 1997, four years after it was passed by the European Council in 1993.…”

“…Moreover, the initial locations of German regional airports are not due to the economy in the surrounding regions, since most of today's regional airports were part of military bases before being converted to civilian use (Behnen, 2004). Of the 24 regional airports, 15 have a military background.…”

“…As expected, most regional airports invested extensively to prepare their facilities for the needs of modern and international airlines and passengers. 1 Moreover, the location of many regional airports in Germany is less based on economic factors since most of them were converted from military to civilian use (Behnen, 2004). 2 Their original location followed military strategies instead of economic reasoning (Cidell, 2003).…”

Military Base Conversion in South Africa: Opportunities for Local Economic Development

“…The international experience suggests that the process of closing military bases and converting them to alternative uses has a critical impact upon the prospects for local economic development (Lall and Marlin 1992;Bishop 1996;Dardia et al 1996;Gerster 1996;Chiang 1997;Hill 1998;Sands 2001;Cidell 2003, Dertouzos andDardia 2004;Behnen 2004). This article explores the South African experience of the reuse of military bases, which have become redundant in the wake of defence cuts taking place in the post-apartheid period (Abrahams 2006) More specifically, the paper provides an overview of recent planning debates relating to base conversion.…”

A study of criteria for air cargo terminal classification model

“…Centrality (betweenness centrality of airports by area) Runway length: 3,800 m (unlimited operations cargo) (Behnen, 2004) Runway length: 3,600 m (unlimited intercontinental operations) Runway length: 2,500 m (unlimited operations with medium-range jets e.g. B737, A320) Runway length: 1,800 m (minimum for mediumrange jets) Runway length: 1,100 m (minimum for scheduled operations with STOL-aircraft) Authors/ References Origin-destination demand (Gardiner & Ison, 2008;Gardiner et al, 2005) Freight forwarder presence Night operations capability Size of local market (% of shipments locally generated) (Schwieterman, 1994) Airport operational time (around the clock or with curfew) (Park, 2003) No.…”