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Press release
- 20.01.2004
- Traffic figures 2003: 6.5 per cent more passengers at Hamburg Airport
In 2003, 9,529,830 passengers used Hamburg Airport, 6.5 per cent more than in the previous year (8,946,505 passengers). The increasing tendency of airline companies to employ substantially larger aircraft is evident in the change in the maximum start weight, which increased by 3 per cent, while the number of flight movements remained virtually unchanged. With 149,365 take-offs and landings Hamburg Airport reported a drop of 0.6 per cent against the previous year (150,271 flight movements). On average, Hamburg Airport was used by 26,109 passengers every day in 2003 and there were 409 starts and landings per day. Hamburg Airport’s growth of 6.5 per cent is almost double the average growth of other passenger airports in Germany.
Positive result for 2003
In 2003, Hamburg Airport again defended its position as Germany’s fifth-largest airport. “Despite the prevailing difficult economic and political situation and several unbudgeted for expenses, including the damage to the access road in spring 2003, our result for 2003 will again be of a satisfactory volume”, stated Werner Hauschild, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hamburg Airport. “In the past year we continued to drive forward our company-wide cost-cutting programme, and our subsidiaries again made a greater contribution to the Group’s turnover. The profits we have generated in 2003 secure the funding for our HAM Extension Project and will enable us to absorb the year’s extraordinary expenses.” For Hamburg – “a growing city in a strong region” – the Airport remains a key economic factor and source of business impulses. The airport itself and the businesses based there employ more than 12,000 people.
More destinations and lower prices
A factor driving this gratifying growth is the strengthened commitment and increased activities of many airline companies in Hamburg. In 2003, a total of 60 airlines offered direct flights from Hamburg to 114 destinations. Hamburg Airport has also been successful in expanding the budget airline segment: Air Berlin now offers services to Vienna and Zurich; dba has started services to Nice and Stuttgart; and Germania Express is offering non-stop flights to Zurich and Munich. The budget price segment is set to continue its growth in 2004: Hapag-Lloyd Express has announced that it will start servicing Naples, Dublin and Palma de Mallorca as from the coming spring.
Pro-actively facing challenges
Although the overall conditions remain difficult, Airport chairman Werner Hauschild sees the Airport’s recovery last year as setting the course for a successful business year: “Aviation has always reacted very sensitively to global political and economic developments. A modern airport has to be able to recognise sweeping changes from the moment they emerge and actively take counter-measures. Hamburg Airport pro-actively faces these challenges, as is evident in continual adjustment of the corporate structure and the Airport’s commitment to the largest investment project in its history.” The completion of the key components in this immense €350 million project comes within grasping reach in the current year: the final completion of work on the spacious new access roads, more parking spaces outside the terminal buildings and the new Terminal 2 is scheduled for 2005.