Features

Dusseldorf: Hub of activity

26 Feb 2009 by Mark Caswell

Mark Caswell reports on intercontinental expansion and on-site developments at Germany’s third-busiest airport.

Germany is unusual among European countries in that its capital city does not house its largest airport. Berlin’s Tegel airport languishes in fourth place in terms of passenger numbers, and if all goes to plan it will be closed in the next few years, to be amalgamated with the revamped Schonefeld facility under the name Berlin-Brandenberg International. The financial hub of Frankfurt Am Main is way out in first place, with Munich’s Franz Josef Strauss in second, and Dusseldorf International in third, with over 18 million passengers last year. But with more than 20 million people living within an hour of Dusseldorf, and the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia accounting for over 20 per cent of Germany’s GDP, the airport has been enjoying steady growth in recent years. Just under 80 airlines serve 180 destinations from the airport, with a total of 600 departures per day. The big news last year was Lufthansa’s re-introduction of regular transatlantic routes from the airport, services not seen since the mid-nineties. The airline had been flying to New York and Chicago with all-business class aircraft provided by its subsidiary Privatair, but in May last year it decided to replace these services with daily flights using A340 aircraft in three classes. Miami joined the fold in October with a six-weekly winter service, and Toronto will be added again in May for the summer season. As Carsten Wirths, Lufthansa’s programme manager in Dusseldorf, explains, the carrier has invested in the facilities at its third intercontinental hub to offer transatlantic passengers the same level of service as at Frankfurt and Munich. He says: “We have not simply introduced a new offer to the market at short notice but improved our infrastructure and our products and prepared for the growth.” Among these improvements are a new first class check-in area offering privacy for Lufthansa’s premium customers and direct access to a dedicated security lane. The carrier’s business class lounge doubled in size in 2007 and can now accommodate up to 260 passengers, and the airport also houses one of Lufthansa’s largest Senator lounges for top Miles and More members. Dusseldorf is served four times a day from London Heathrow by the German carrier, but it is the connections from other UK airports that may interest regional travellers looking to connect to the US. This summer, Lufthansa will fly to Dusseldorf from Birmingham and Manchester (both with 23 flights per week), Newcastle (12 times a week), Newquay and, for the first time, Inverness, both once a week. The airline will also serve Dusseldorf-Jersey once a week. The minimum connection time at Dusseldorf is 40 minutes, and Lufthansa says the schedules mean connections from Birmingham and Manchester on to the US take an average of one hour. There are also 15 flights per week from London City, giving those based near Canary Wharf an alternative to slogging over to Heathrow. The other big player at Dusseldorf International is Air Berlin, with over 80 destinations served by the carrier, including Moscow and Bangkok – the latter previously under the guise of LTU, an airline taken over by Air Berlin in 2007 but whose livery has now all but disappeared. Air Berlin is also the only carrier to serve Dusseldorf airport from London Stansted, with a total of 23 flights per week during the summer season. It’s worth noting that Ryanair flies from Stansted to Weeze airport, a small facility about 50km from Dusseldorf. The low-cost carrier’s services dominate this airport, with flights to UK destinations including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and Gatwick. Ryanair refers to the airport as Dusseldorf-Weeze on its website – Weeze airport’s operators also wanted to include “Dusseldorf” in its name but were prevented because of the distance of the airport from the city. Compared with Weeze, Dusseldorf International is only a stone’s throw from the city centre at 9km or about ten minutes’ drive. The Skytrain monorail service also connects the airport to Dusseldorf’s Intercity train station, from where travellers can connect to Bonn and Cologne in about 30 minutes, Hamburg in three hours and Berlin in four. Ironically, it is these excellent transport links that provide the airport’s main stumbling block – a direct service connects Dusseldorf with Amsterdam’s Centraal station in under two and a half hours, from where passengers have a far larger choice of intercontinental flights from Schiphol airport. Dusseldorf International also competes with nearby Cologne Bonn airport, which offers connections from London Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, as well as Nottingham East Midlands and Manchester. It’s not only flights that are attracting business to Dusseldorf airport – about 40 per cent of its income comes from non-aviation sources. The airport is 50 per cent owned by the city of Dusseldorf, with the other half held by Airport Partners GMBH, and the partnership is developing a 230,000 sqm business park adjacent to the terminal, under the name Airport City. Due to be completed in 2013, the park already boasts a hotel, the 533-room Maritim Hotel Dusseldorf, and underground parking, and will soon house the regional headquarters of Porsche. Until recently, the only on-airport hotel had been the Sheraton Dusseldorf Airport Hotel, located opposite the main entrance to the terminal. Situated on top of the airport’s main car park, the single-storey hotel consists of two oval rings, one inside the other (see picture, facing page). This allows all of the property’s 200 bedrooms to have views of the gardens. The hotel also has three restaurants and bars, a turtle sanctuary and 18 recently refurbished meeting rooms. The arrival of the Maritim Hotel Dusseldorf is a sign of growing demand at the airport. The property opened in December 2007 and is attached to the airport by a 125-metre glass-covered walkway, off which several of the hotel’s restaurants and bars are located. The hotel also houses the largest conference facilities in the region, accommodating up to 5,000 people in total. Facilities such as these, and the €200 million being invested in the airport’s infrastructure over the next three years, should ensure that Dusseldorf International consolidates its place as the third-largest airport in Germany, and the largest in the North Rhine-Westphalia region.