O-STA

Fraport AG Submits Documentation for Zoning Procedure on the Expansion of Frankfurt Airport

€3.3 Billion Investment - Expansion Expected to Create 100,000 New Jobs - Fraport Applies for Nighttime Ban - "Fraport Will Keep Its Word" Says Bender

FRA/rap-ten> Today Fraport AG submitted documentation for the zoning procedure (Planfeststellungs-verfahren) on the planned capacity expansion of Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to the president of the Darmstadt administrative district. This will pave the way for construction of an additional landing runway northwest of the airport and of a third passenger terminal at the current U.S. Air Base on the southern side of the airport. Fraport executive board chairman Dr. Wilhelm Bender called the zoning application a "milestone that is now setting the course for Frankfurt Airport�'s future". Not only the airport but the entire country will profit from the expansion. Fraport AG�'s €3.3 billion Airport Expansion Program (AEP) is currently the most significant privately financed investment project in Germany, with positive effects for the construction industry and for medium-sized companies, especially in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region. With this expansion, FRA will be able to strengthen further its role as an "economic engine and job generator".

The new landing runway is expected to be completed by the end of 2006 and to go into operation in 2007. The new terminal is scheduled to be built in phases, with completion by 2015. The new runway will boost FRA�'s current capacity of about 500,000 aircraft movements to about 660,000 per year.

Direct employment at FRA has doubled to over 62,500 since 1980. The airport�'s planned capacity expansion is forecast to result in some 100,000 new jobs, almost 80,000 in the region alone. "The zoning documentation includes recent job surveys which provide - in comparison to the previous regional planning procedure - a more comprehensive analysis that also considers catalytic effects," Bender explained.

Within the framework of the regional planning procedure analyses were restricted to the examination of the effects created by the airport employment complex. The zoning documentation now includes a more detailed expert study on employment in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, including the so-called catalytic effects. These effects show the significance of FRA�'s international air traffic links for companies�' location and investment decisions in favor of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region and, thus, the resulting effects for the job market. If the two perspectives (expansion and non-expansion) are compared, then some 54,000 "catalytic" jobs can be added to the additional 43,000 jobs that had been predicted so far. Compared to a non-expansion scenario, this results in some 100,000 additional jobs in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region and Germany after expansion of the airport.

The application for a nighttime flight ban at FRA linked to the operation of the new landing runway is also an "integral part of the zoning documentation," Bender said. He stressed that Fraport AG "will stand behind all previously agreed to commitments. We have kept our word."

The president of the Darmstadt administrative district will now check whether Fraport�'s submitted application documents are complete. "We hope that the completeness check of the documents will still be concluded before the end of this year", said Prof. Manfred Schölch, deputy chairman of Fraport�'s executive board and board member responsible for the Airport Expansion Program. With a total of 10,000 pages of text, 750 plans and maps as well as 34 expert opinions and supplementary opinions, the application documents include the complete technical planning for the facilities required for the capacity expansion. The need for FRA�'s expansion is explained in detail and all individual application items are extensively substantiated. The submitted documents also focus on key issues such as environmental compatibility, aircraft noise and nighttime flight restrictions, as well as safety issues - especially regarding the Ticona chemical plant.

In response to the Ticona issue, Schölch said that the expert opinion on external risk "clearly proves that the expansion will neither endanger the chemical plant�'s existence nor its future development". Within the framework of the procedure a detailed public discussion will follow. Fraport expects this to take place in the spring of 2004.