Frankfurt, June 2, 2009 — Lufthansa Cargo AG is continuing to campaign for a practicable night flight regulation at Frankfurt Airport. At the beginning of the hearing before the Higher Administrative Court in Kassel, the Workers Council of the airfreight company launched an information offensive for the retention of night-time cargo flights.
Frankfurt Airport is one of the most important airfreight hubs in the world thanks to its central geographical location, its outstanding inter-modal networking and its infrastructure which has developed over the long term, according to Willi Roerig, chairman of the Central Workers Council of Lufthansa Cargo. "A ban on night flights would cut the export nation Germany off from the international flows of goods and lead to a relocation of production and logistics companies.As a result, the role of Frankfurt as an international logistics hub, and meanwhile the seventh-largest freight airport in the world, would be seriously threatened."
With an information campaign in the next few weeks, the Workers Council wants to focus on the concerns of around 3,000 Lufthansa Cargo employees in Germany. This morning on the occasion of the first day of the hearing before the VGH, the Frankfurt Workers Council members were in Kassel. Roerig: "We want to underline our demands once again here. Freight needs the night. A shutdown of the airport between 23.00 and 05.00 hours would threaten the continued existence of Lufthansa Cargo and put thousands of jobs in our company and at numerous other logistics companies at risk."
As of today, the State of Hesses Higher Administrative Court in Kassel will begin hearing the objections to the Planfeststellungsbeschluss on the expansion of Frankfurt Airport — and hereby, in particular, about a possible ban on night flights. Lufthansa Cargo is hoping to gain legal assurance on the night flight topic as soon as possible. The company has deferred an investment in a new logistics center at Frankfurt Airport until a corresponding decision has been made. In the event of a practicable night flight regulation, Lufthansa Cargo wants to invest a three-digit million sum and replace the 27-year-old cargo center in the CargoCity Nord.
