A full-size cabin-section model of the A380 aircraft was unveiled at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 1…
A full-size cabin-section model of the A380 aircraft was unveiled at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 1, in Departures Hall A near Entrance 2. Open daily from 9:00 to 18:00 hours until the end of 2005, the A380 display allows visitors already to experience a new dimension in air travel – the coming age of the superjumbo.
The double-decker A380 model was officially inaugurated by Fraport AG’s executive board chairman Dr. Wilhelm Bender, along with Deutsche Lufthansa’s executive board chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Singapore Airlines’ general manager of Germany, Eric Lepieux, and Martin Gaebges, general secretary of the Board of Airline Representatives in Germany (BARIG). This special A380 exhibition highlights Frankfurt Airport’s strategic positioning as Europe’s “superhub for the superjumbo.” Scheduled A380 flights from FRA are expected in the autumn of 2007, when Lufthansa’s first superjumbos go into service. Fraport’s Bender described the A380 as a milestone in the development of Frankfurt Airport: “The future of A380 superjumbo travel is starting here at FRA.”
“In the years to come, this aircraft will revolutionize civil aviation at least as much as the Boeing 747 jumbo did in its day,” Bender explained. In particular, the dimensions of the new superjumbo cabin – eight meters high by six meters wide – will enable a new level of comfort to be offered on two separate levels.
A380 preparations at Frankfurt Airport are well underway. FRA’s runway system is already compatible with the A380. Other preparations include new passenger loading bridges and larger aircraft gates. By the end of 2007, three to four A380 docking positions will be available at Terminal 1, as well as positions at Terminal 2. Inaugurated in 1994, Terminal 2 was conceived for the future age of superjumbos. Hence, a number of aircraft parking positions at Terminal 2 are already large enough to receive A380 jets. Fraport AG has recently received zoning approval to construct a new A380 maintenance base for Lufthansa at the south side of the airport. Construction is expected to start in the spring of next year and to be completed in time for the arrival of the first Lufthansa A380s in 2007.
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