New A380 maintenance base

Airbus has started delivery of the new A380 superjumbo from 2007. Lufthansa and other airlines are planning to operate this new widebody aircraft at the FRA hub. This will require a new maintenance hangar, which is to be built to the south of the airport site.

After nearly 20 months of construction, Lufthansa Technik has inaugurated the first section of the new A380 maintenance hangar at Frankfurt Airport on January 11th 2007. The maintenance facility covers about 20.000 square meters of floor space and already offers enough room for two Airbus A380 or three Boeing 747s.

When completed in 2015, the entire hangar system will have a maintenance capacity of four A380s and will be Europe's biggest aircraft maintenance facility.

Lufthansa is investing about €150 million for the new A380 maintenance base – the largest industrial hall in Germany – at its Frankfurt home airport. Fraport AG's land utilization agreement with Lufthansa for the site at the southern side of the airport, which is now ready for construction, runs for a period of 65 years. 

The new A380 will revolutionize long-haul air transportation. For hub airports like FRA this means that only those airports served by the A380 will maintain their positions in the premier league of major airports. In the currently planned version with 840 seats maximum, this aircraft has more capacity than any other aircraft but is quieter and emits fewer pollutants. The A380 will also be the world's first aircraft with an automatic noise optimization function within its flight management system. This function will further improve minimum-noise takeoff procedures in daily operations.

For more information about the A380 and Frankfurt Airport click here