Dusseldorf Aims For More Traffic

<B>Dusseldorf Aims For More Traffic</B>

By Fred Gebhart

Dusseldorf is counting on new airport and train terminals to lure business travelers away from the familiar concourses of Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The obvious winners from the new strategy are United Airlines and Lufthansa, with the only U.S.-Dusseldorf nonstops in the market, but airline officials said business travelers also can win big.

"Much of central Germany is a taxi ride away from Dusseldorf," said Friedrich Oldenburg, United sales manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, who is based in Frankfurt. "The same business centers are several hours by train or Autobahn from Frankfurt. Business travelers can save considerable time and effort by flying into Dusseldorf instead of Frankfurt."

What they'll find is a bright, airy new terminal with glass window walls and enormous skylights opening in stages toward completion in summer 2001. The new facility replaces makeshift piers and holding areas pressed into service after the central terminal was destroyed by a 1996 fire. The fire, which was sparked by welders, killed 17 and disrupted air traffic across Western Europe for months.

Four existing piers are being consolidated into three. The A and B gates are reserved for scheduled carriers, while C gates will be used for leisure and charter carriers that specialize in group business. Current plans allot Pier A gates to Star Alliance members United and Lufthansa. That's a logistical plus for Star travelers since Lufthansa operates 90 percent of the domestic and regional connections out of Dusseldorf.

OneWorld carriers are concentrated in Pier B. Plans also call for one of Dusseldorf's two runways to be extended for Boeing 777 and Airbus 340 takeoffs.

The new gates give Dusseldorf capacity for 22 million annual passenger movements, up from 16 million through the cramped airport in 1999. Oldenburg said most of the increase will come from domestic and regional flights. Frankfurt is slated to remain Germany's primary hub for onward international connections, but Dusseldorf offers easier regional connections. With less air traffic than either Amsterdam or Frankfurt, Dusseldorf has fewer flight delays. Concentrating business traffic in two adjacent piers also should make for faster connections on the ground.

Other groundside improvements include a 12,600-sq.-ft. airport meeting center with 20 conference rooms, a new airport railway station on the main ICE (InterCity Express) line from Cologne to Duisburg, and a monorail connecting airport and train terminals. The train station already is open; the monorail is scheduled to begin service this winter.

Once the monorail opens, passengers can move from airport to train station in four minutes without ever stepping outside. The current bus transfer takes about 10 minutes. Lufthansa wants to use the new Dusseldorf capacity and easy European travel connections to ease pressure on its busy New York-Frankfurt flights. The German carrier also flies from New York to Dusseldorf.

"United is satisfied with loads on its Chicago-Dusseldorf route, but wants to boost yields by increasing the number of business travelers," Oldenburg said. Business flyers now fill 28 percent of the seats on the route, he added, but produce 55 percent of the revenue. The carrier also would like to boost the percentage of U.S.-originating passengers, now just 30 percent, because U.S. passengers typically fly on higher yielding tickets, he said.

Whether United actually can convince business travelers from the United States to switch from familiar Frankfurt and Amsterdam remains to be seen. For starters, Oldenburg said, Dusseldorf is a virtual unknown in the U.S. market. Road warriors headed for Essen, Duisberg and other nearby business centers barely notice Dusseldorf exits from the Autobahn or the quick stop at Dusseldorf's main train station. Convincing them to fly into an unknown gateway is a tough sell.

There's also a question about hotel space. Dusseldorf is Germany's busiest trade fair center. Messe Dusseldorf has more than 2.5 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space alone.

"Hotel occupancy averages 65 percent citywide," said Messe public relations manager Boris Neisser, but top properties like the 123-room Steigenberger Park Hotel run closer to 80 percent. There are 70,000 rooms within a 30-mile radius, all of them occupied during major trade fairs. So are dozens of cabins aboard Rhine River cruise boats anchored at city center docks that sometimes sell for $400 per night.

The room crunch should start to ease by late 2002. Marriott has announced plans for a 200- to 300-room property at Media Harbor. The massive redevelopment project along the Rhine has turned a decaying harborfront warehouse district into a red-hot high-tech center overflowing with print, television, radio and dot.com media companies.

The Messe is opening its own 250-room property in 2004 for meeting and international congress attendees. But the hottest hotel story around Dusseldorf is Ritz-Carlton.

Local business leaders said the Atlanta-based management firm has agreed unofficially to take over management of the elegant Bridenbakerhof, a historic Art Moderne property that was sold in 1999, then closed for renovation or replacement. Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Shelby Taylor said discussions are underway with the new owners, but no firm commitments have been finalized.