Year of the Rooster As Hahn Goes Bats

     Well —yes. Hahn means “rooster” in German but trying to figure out why a former U.S. Air Force base, a place once populated by so-called “Eagles” is named for a grounded bird remains a mystery.
     Frankfurt Hahn is the most successful conversion program at a European airport from military to civil use.
     Civilian business took off in late 1994 as cargo business began with a few charter flights to Russia, and other former Soviet destinations.
     But the Hahn passenger operation commenced big time with a bang as venturesome Ryanair discovered the hidden airport and soon converted The Hahn into a leading European low-cost passenger hub.
     In 1999, 140,000 passengers arrived and departed using The Hahn’s modest facilities and vintage infrastructure.
     By 2005 3,079,528 low cost passengers populated the two modern terminals, parking lots, hotels and other installations of this growing and up to date gateway.
     With about 22 times more passengers at Hahn than just six years ago, Ryanair has announced that it will boost its European continental hub operation with a billion dollar investment program and that Frankfurt Hahn Airport in 2012 will be home base for 18 aircraft serving 50 routes versus 6 aircraft and 27 destinations today.
     By 2012 The Hahn expects to handle 10 million low cost passengers a year carried on Ryanair but also on a number of other carriers such as Wizzair and Iceland Express.
     At The Hahn impressive passenger numbers are matched by even more growth on the cargo side.
     The tonnage flown to and from Frankfurt Hahn Airport jumped from 66,147 tons in 2004 to 107,305 in 2005, a whopping 62 % uptick.
     "The figures speak for themselves," says Stefano Wulf, Managing Director of Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH.
     "Although we did not meet the passenger figures originally forecast (3.5 million), the cargo sector far surpassed our expectations (80,000 tons).
     “The investments and expansion we are planning will give us the best possible positioning for the future."
Ryanair, the Irish pioneer and market leader among cut-rate airlines flies roughly 95% of scheduled flights at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. In addition, the low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Iceland Express set up shop at the airport in the first half of 2005 and are promising higher growth rates in the long term.”
     But there are other numbers to consider.
     Air France maintains a kind of trucking hub at Hahn, to and from practically all European markets.
     Freight is palletized here and then trucked to the CDG operation for global departures.
     Taking road feeder service numbers into consideration Hahn handled 228,920 tons in 2005 an increase of 20 % over 2004.
     During 2005 the number of flight operations at Hahn grew by 18 %.
     At Hahn the Antonov 124 of Russian Volga Dniepr, Ukrainian Antonov Airlines and Polet Airlines from Russia were seen here in regular service.
     Frankfurt Hahn Airport is investing into the future to meet expected growth of low cost passengers and cargo.
     One major project includes the addition of an 800-meter runway extension that was thought up by the airport operators quite some time ago as just the ticket to bring even more air cargo carriers to the facility.
     However there is trouble in airport paradise as air cargo “the night animal”(a phrase that John C. Emery Jr. invented to describe air cargo in 1984) meets another creature of the night the barbastelle bat with traditional habitat in the area where the airport has already expanded.
     Talk about discovering a nasty surprise.
     Nobody including people who are supposed to know about these things predicted a problem here.
     Now the runway is ready.
     All the lights are installed and the ILS has been properly located.
     But the airport operator and a number of airlines including Air France are cooling their wings waiting to see if the extension can be put into operation.
     Frankfurt Hahn Airport on their website has announced a settlement of the issue with NABU an environmental group.
     Meanwhile, no turning back, Hahn passenger and cargo numbers will continue to go up.
     Stay tuned.
GFM