Frankfurt Airport Expertise to Be Used by Shanghai's Airports

Frankfurt, Germany (ots) - China's booming economic region of Shanghai plans to use Frankfurt's airport know-how for developing its airports in the future. A cooperation agreement between Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide and Shanghai Airport Group is expected to be signed on December 30, as part of celebrations during a German state visit to China.

Germany's chancellor Schröder is visiting China with a high-level delegation of German political and business leaders. Fraport AG's executive board chairman, Dr. Wilhelm Bender, is among the group of business leaders participating in the visit. At an official banquet in Shanghai on the evening of December 30, Bender will sign a cooperation agreement with the chairman of the Shanghai Airport Group, Xia Keqiang. Top political leaders of both countries will also be on hand, resent at this ceremony, including China's prime minister, Zhu Rongji, and Shanghai`s lord mayor, Chen Liangyu. Along with Schröder, the German delegation will be represented by federal ministers Wolfgang Clement and Dr. Manfred Stolpe.

Shanghai has two airports, including the new Pudung international airport. Shanghai registered double-digit growth in air traffic in 2001, with a total of 21.1 million passengers and 803,000 metric tons of airfreight. Take-offs and landings (aircraft movements) reached 194,400.

The Frankfurt-Shanghai cooperation will not involve any financial investment. Instead, the cooperation involves providing the Chinese partners with Fraport's decades-long expertise in managing and operating a major intercontinental hub airport as well as utilizing Frankfurt's experience in airport IPOs (initial public offering). An exchange of airport specialists is also envisaged in the near future. Plans call for bringing together experts from both airport companies by the spring of 2003 to agree on concrete plans for the first airport projects.

Before departing on his trip to China, Fraport's executive board chairman Dr. Wilhelm Bender emphasized that the planned cooperation agreement with Shanghai underscores Frankfurt's excellent reputation in global aviation. "Indeed, airport insiders consider FRA to be a brand product. We will do everything possible to make this long-term strategic partnership with Shanghai a success. Of course, the Chinese market is of course extremely interesting for every German company looking beyond Germany's border."