Frankfurt Airport on Oct. 21 will open a fourth runway, giving it the
potential to increase take-off and landing slots by up to 50 percent. Travel
buyers hoping the additional capacity will counterbalance the dominance of Star
Alliance in general and Lufthansa in particular at the German flag carrier's
primary hub are likely to be disappointed, according to corporate travel
experts. Star Alliance in 2010 had a 75 percent share of passengers at
Frankfurt, the overwhelming majority of them flying with Lufthansa, although
airport owner Fraport does not publicly break down market share by airline.
Dominance at Frankfurt long has been a key reason for Lufthansa's strong
position in the German market. No other Germany-based carrier except the
leisure-focused Condor, a former Lufthansa subsidiary, has substantial slots at
what is Europe's third-busiest airport after London Heathrow and Paris Charles
de Gaulle. Yet, despite the new capacity, Lufthansa will if anything increase
its dominance, predicted Hans-Ingo Biehl, executive director of German travel
buyers' association VDR. "Lufthansa has made very clear that without
expansion in Frankfurt it would be prepared to expand its hub at Munich
instead," said Biehl. "With the decision to build a new runway in
Frankfurt, it is clear that Lufthansa and partners will even strengthen their
position at Frankfurt. No other German airline will try to establish a hub in
Frankfurt."
Until recently, the one German carrier that might have considered
competing with Lufthansa in its home market was Air Berlin, but the airline in
recent months shrunk its network after experiencing financial difficulties.
"Other domestic carriers have not managed to serve Frankfurt
long-term," said Thomas Stöckel, senior vice president of supplier
relations for BCD Travel in EMEA. "Air Berlin flew from Hamburg to
Frankfurt for two years, but it terminated the service at the end of September.
Frankfurt is very challenging for other carriers."
A Fraport spokesman said it is impossible to predict whether Lufthansa
and Star Alliance will increase or decrease their market share. So far, most of
the extra Frankfurt capacity revealed for winter 2011 is from Star Alliance
partners. Lufthansa will revive its Rio de Janeiro service and launch several
new short-haul routes, while Continental Airlines adds a second daily flight
from Newark and Singapore Airlines and All Nippon Airways deploy larger
aircraft, Airbus A380s and Boeing 787s, respectively, to serve the airport.
Outside Star Alliance, Emirates, which in the past has alleged German aviation protectionism, is adding a third daily service from Dubai.
The Fraport spokesman said the airport expects new service from a wide
variety of airlines. "We have seen an 8 percent increase in requests for
slots for this winter," he said. "Whether they will all translate
into new services we will have to see, but there has been strong interest from
both existing airlines at the airport and new airlines."
Asked about the dominance of Lufthansa and its partners, he said,
"It depends on how you define competition. Frankfurt is an
intercontinental hub competing with other intercontinental hubs, and there are
probably more airlines [114] serving it than any other European airport. We
also have an extensive land-based feeder system with many airlines offering
through-ticketing to the rail network operating from the airport."