Start of a major new project at Dusseldorf International: The cornerstone for Hangar 7 was laid. The Air Berlin Group will be using the hangar, which has room for three wide-body aircrafts. This is a major expansion of its service facilities at Germany’s third largest airport. For Dusseldorf Airport GmbH this is the largest building project since the expansion of the terminal “airport 2000 plus”, completed in 2003. Among the guests at the ceremony were Lord Mayor Joachim Erwin, Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold, Klaus Pacher, head of the NRW management of Ed. Zublin AG as representative of the construction firms involved, and airport managers Christoph Blume and Thomas Schnalke.

“We are laying the cornerstone for Hangar 7 as well as a part of the foundation for the Dusseldorf hub,” said Christoph Blume, spokesperson for the airport management. The Air Berlin Group is substantially increasing its presence in Dusseldorf and is using the airport as its long-haul hub with new flight offerings, additional personnel and expansion of infrastructure. “After the merger with LTU, Air Berlin is concentrating its wide-body aircraft here. The construction of the additional hangar shows that Air Berlin sees its future in Dusseldorf,” said Blume.

“In the past year, 6.5 million passengers used Air Berlin’s offer at Dusseldorf Airport, the Air Berlin Group is thus the largest airline here and Dusseldorf the most important German airport for Air Berlin,” states Joachim Hunold, CEO of Air Berlin. “This location has enormous economic potential. Today’s groundbreaking for the new service hangar will make Dusseldorf the largest maintenance location for Air Berlin. In the future, AB Luftfahrttechnik Dusseldorf GmbH will not only service the Air Berlin Group fleet, but increase its already existing external business,” continued Air Berlin CEO Hunold. Air Berlin currently has a total of some 2,700 employees in Dusseldorf, 120 new employees are soon to be added in the service division.

Hangar can hold three Airbus 340-600s at the same time

The new hangar is being built to the east of the terminal next to LTU Hangar 8, so that Air Berlin service will be able to use both hangars in the future. Hangar 7 is scheduled for completion in April 2009. The hangar, which will be the largest at Dusseldorf Airport, is a steel structure enclosed with partition panels; for the gate, a polycarbonate enclosure for radar compatibility was chosen. The hangar is approx. 220 meters long and 90 meters wide. Three long-haul aircrafts of the type A340-600 have room here at the same time. Additional plans are for a two-story annex for storage and employee areas and a four-story office annex with building services in the basement and the main entrance to the airport grounds for employees. On the roof of the new hangar, a photovoltaic system covering 1,269 square meters will be installed. This will enable us to feed up to 2,737,442 kWh of electricity into the power grid over a period of 20 years – saving up to 2,475 tons of CO². The total costs for the project amount to about 65 million euros. The new hangar is being built by a working group under the direction of Ed. Zublin AG.

Airport preparing for its growing significance as a hub

The new hangar is part of the Dusseldorf Airport GmbH investment program of about 300 million euros. In this program, the airport is expanding its infrastructure with a view to additional hub functions and the new long-haul flights they will bring. For example, Air Berlin will fly five times a week each to Beijing and Shanghai – two new destinations – beginning May 1. In addition, the Air Berlin Group in Dusseldorf will offer more connections within Germany and Europe and adjust them to the long-haul flights.