GAC-2006-01

What is an airport city?Dr John Kasarda explains

In the spotlight:Hong Kong’s vision of the futureIncheon’s Fashion Island

Desert classic:Dubai’s ambitionsDoha making waves

All the way USA:Denver developmentsDFW strives for more

Plus: Amsterdam Schiphol, Atlanta, Düsseldorf, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow Domodedovo, Munich

What is an airport city?Dr John Kasarda explains

In the spotlight:Hong Kong’s vision of the futureIncheon’s Fashion Island

Desert classic:Dubai’s ambitionsDoha making waves

All the way USA:Denver developmentsDFW strives for more

Plus: Amsterdam Schiphol, Atlanta, Düsseldorf, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow Domodedovo, Munich

Complete Airport Cities Hong Kong Conference & Exhibitor Guide Inside

Global Airport CitiesGlobal Airport CitiesDRIVERS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

apc mag august MAIN:Layout 1 6/11/07 16:44 Page 1


3FOREWORD

Welcome to the first edition of Global Airport Cities magazine, an exciting new quarterly publication focused onthe transformation of airports into airport cities.

Brought to you by Insight Media – publishers of Airport World and Routes News – in association with the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise, University of North Carolina, GlobalAirport Cities magazine aims to be your one-stop shop foreverything airport cities.

Our experienced editorial team will use their expert knowledge of the industry to report on the hot topics, issues,trends, studies, latest technologies and successful business practices that contribute toward the planning and development of an airport city.

It is the only magazine dedicated to serving all parties actively engaged in the planning and development of an airport city, from the airport operators and their business

partners to national and regional planners and economic development agencies.

Whether it is business management articles, stories on ‘best’practices, industry case-studies or benchmarking performance, readers can rely on Global Airport Cities magazine to provide the news and advice needed to retain their competitive edge in today’s rapidly changing environment.

Global Airport Cities magazine will have a controlled circulation of 5,000 copies with distribution across Europe and Russia (1,500), North America (1,250), Asia Pacific (1,250), the Middle East (500), Latin America and the Caribbean (250), and Africa (250).

Our monthly subscription based e-newsletter, Global Airport Cities Today, and our web-site www.globalairportcities.comwill keep you informed of all the latest developments in the world of airport cities..

Alex Kirby, managing director of Insight Media and publisher of Global Airport Cities magazine.

Dawn of a new era

Global Airport Cities

PublisherAlex KirbyD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7502E-mail: [email protected]

EditorialEditorJoe BatesD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7507E-mail: [email protected]

Deputy EditorJane AustinD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7514E-mail: [email protected]

Editorial ConsultantDr John KasardaD/line: +1 919 962 8201E-mail: [email protected]

SalesSales DirectorJonathan LeeD/line + 44(0) 20 8831 7563E-mail:[email protected]

Sales ManagerAndrew HazellD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7518E-mail: [email protected]

Marketing ExecutiveMelissa HallD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7517E-mail: [email protected]

ProductionDesign & Production ManagerAndrew MontgomeryD/line: + 44(0) 20 8831 7564E-mail: [email protected]

LayoutMark Grassick

SubscriptionsSubscriptions ManagerBal SangheraD/line: +44 (0) 20 8831 7506E-mail: [email protected]

Published by Insight Media LtdSovereign House,26-30 London Road,Twickenham, TW1 3RW, UKTel: +44 (0) 20 8831 7500Fax: +44 (0) 20 8891 0123

Printed in the UKThe Magazine Printing Cowww.magprint.co.uk

All information contained in Global AirportCities is correct at the time of going topress. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the expressed permission of the publishers.

�

Cover images from left to right: Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Incheon & Doha.


5VIEWPOINT

In recent years, the global airport business has been undergoing rapidand fundamental changes. Today’s airports are no longer simply an infrastructure for passengers to embark and disembark. Major airports are

evolving from merely an aviation infrastructure into a diversified city with anairport being the centre of people activities and business development.

And these new city-around-airport developments are generally beingregarded as airport cities or ‘aerotroplises’. While airports in Schiphol andFrankfurt have been vigorously building their own airport cities, airports inHong Kong, Dubai and Incheon are also at the forefront of this global trendof development.

So what is an airport city? There is no definitive answer to this ques-tion as the development of an airport city depends very much on the geographical, cultural and socio-political environments in which the air-port is situated. That said, almost all airport city developments share acommon thread of creating a city out of the people, cargo, capital and in-formation flows the airport generates. In essence, the thinking is to trans-form a city’s airport into an airport’s city. What one finds in a city can andwill be found at an airport and its surrounding metropolitan areas.

A similar vision is fast turning into reality at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). To achieve long-term, sustainable growth forHKIA, we redefined our business, market and product several years ago.As a result of this strategic repositioning, we developed and executed agrowth strategy to reach out to our enlarged home market, which comprises Hong Kong and the 50 million people in the Pearl River Delta region in the Chinese mainland. The re-examination also makes us seethe airport as a business management experience bringing people

long-lasting memories and fond dreams. A major component of this strategy is to transform HKIA into an airport city and a travellers’ destina-tion in its own right.

It was against this background that HKIA’s SkyCity development was conceived.

SkyCity’s robust developments saw AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong’slargest exhibition centre, opened its doors last year. Our new Terminal 2 −an integrated multi-modal transportation centre where rail, road, air andsea transport converge seamlessly − is scheduled for opening at the endof 2006. SkyPlaza, a shopping, dining and entertainment mecca, will alsobe housed at Terminal 2. Over the next two years, other SkyCity projects including two office buildings namely the HKIA Tower and Airport WorldTrade Centre, a nine-hole golf course, a permanent SkyPier ferry terminaland a second airport hotel will come on stream. And these only constitutephase one of our SkyCity development. More developments are to follow.

Currently, we are working on a wide-ranging study that re-examines ourgrowth strategies by critically assessing the demand, supply and competition/co-operation dynamics that HKIA will face over the next twodecades. We have set our sight afar and aim to make HKIA one of China’smost important multi-modal transport hubs and a centre of regional andinternational aviation.

Being the world’s fifth busiest airport in terms of international travellerthroughput and the busiest international cargo airport for the last 10 years,I am confident that HKIA is strategically positioned for sustainable growthand our SkyCity development will continue to be a cornerstone in ourlong-term growth.

Airport Authority Hong Kong CEO, Dr David Pang, shares his views on the airport city phenomenon.

A tale of airport cities

�



3 DAWN OF A NEW ERAAlex Kirby, managing director of Insight Media and publisher of Global Airport Cities magazine.

5 A TALE OF AIRPORT CITIESAirport Authority Hong Kong CEO, Dr David Pang, shares his views on the airport city phenomenon.

8 THE NEW BUSINESS MODELDr John Kasarda explains why the development of an ‘airport city’ or‘aerotropolis’ is the way forward for the world’s major gateways.

14 SKY HIGH AMBITION Joe Bates reports on the transformation of Hong Kong International Airport into one of the world’s leading airport cities.

18 BIGGER, BETTER, SMARTERDubai’s planned new airport city at Jebel Ali is expected to set the standards that others will follow, writes Henry Canaday.

21 HEIGHT OF FASHION Incheon International Airport is set to open its own Fashion Island as part of its airport city development programme, writes Joe Bates.

24 EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION Mark Chivers explores the philosophy of the Schiphol Group, one of the originators of the airport city concept and still blazing a trail today.

26 GROWING PLACESHenry Canaday reports on Denver’s airport city development plans.

29 A RUNWAY FOR BUSINESSMark Chivers explores the airport city development plansof Germany’s third largest gateway.

32 MAKING WAVESDoha’s dream of creating one of the world’s top gatewaysand a leading airport city is about to become reality,writes Jane Austin.

Loyalty programjmes are the new 34 BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Robin Stone reports on Moscow Domodedovo’s plans to complete its transformation into Eastern Europe’s leading airport city.

36 FORMULA FOR SUCCESSRitesh Gupta reports on ambitious plans to make Kuala Lumpur International Airport a ‘destination in its own right’.

40 TEXAS STARBecoming an airport city is high on the agenda of the world’s sixth busiest gateway, writes Brian Murnahan.

43 BAVARIAN BRILLIANCEOffering passengers everything from a microbrewery to the kitchen sink, Erica Gingerich describes how Munich has grown from a city airport to an airport city.

46 THINKING BIGACI’s saChris Kjelgaard reports on the airport city development

plans of the world’s busiest gateway.

49 AIRPORT CITIES HONG KONG CONFERENCEAND EXHIBITION GUIDE

CONTENTS

36 40

W W W. G L O B A L A I R P O R T C I T I E S . C O M

18 21 2434


As they transform in function, financing, management and development impact, the traditional definition of an airport is being reshaped and redefined.

In the past, airports were simply a place where aircraft, passengers and cargo arrived and departed, but this historic understanding is fast giving way to a much broader, more encompassing concept.

The new model recognises the fact that in addition to their core aeronautical infrastructure and services, major airports have developed significant non-aeronautical commercial facilities, services and revenuestreams. At the same time they are extending their formal reach and impactwell beyond airport boundaries.

The non-aeronautical boomNo longer restricted to magazine shops and fast food outlets, passenger terminals now feature brand name boutiques, specialty retail andupscale restaurants along with entertainment and cultural attractions.

Hong Kong International Airport, for instance, hosts more than 30 high-enddesigner clothing shops. Singapore Changi offers cinemas, saunas and a swimming pool and Munich boasts its own hospital while both Las Vegas McCarran and Amsterdam Schiphol have cultural attractions in the shape of amuseum and a Dutch master’s gallery.

Others doing something a little different include Frankfurt – which has the world’s largest airport clinic serving over 36,000 patients yearly – and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County’s 420 room hotel is located on its

main concourse. Beijing Capital Airport’s tenants include a handful of bankswhile Stockholm Arlanda’s intensively utilised chapel carried out over 450 weddings in 2005. All major airports, of course, are diversifying, upgradingand expanding their terminal retail.

Given the significantly higher incomes of airline passengers (typically threeto five times higher than national averages) and the huge volumes of passengers flowing through the terminals (often in the tens of millions annually), it is not surprising that retail sales per square metre average threeto four times greater than shopping malls and downtown shops. As a result,terminal commercial lease rates tend to be the highest in the metropolitan area.

In addition to incorporating a variety of commercial functions into passenger terminals, airports are developing their landside areas with hotels, office and retail complexes, conference and exhibition centres, logistics and free trade zones and facilities for processing time-sensitive goods. Consequently, many airports today receive greater percentages of their revenues from non-aeronautical sources than from aeronautical sources (eg; landing fees, gate leases and passenger service charges).

These non-aeronautical revenues have become critical to airports meet-ing their facility modernisation and infrastructure expansion needs, as well asbeing cost-competitive in attracting and retaining airlines.

The rapid expansion of airport-centric commercial development also makes today’s gateways leading urban growth generators as they

8 AIRPORT CITIES

The newbusiness modelThe newbusiness modelDr John Kasarda explains why the development of an ‘airport city’ or ‘aerotropolis’ is the way forwardfor the world’s major gateways.

Picture courtesy of Munich Airport.


become significant employment, shopping, trading, business meeting and leisure destinations in their own right. The evolution of these non-aeronautical functions and commercial land uses has transformed numerous city airports into airport cities.

Airport EvolutionConsistent with their growing non-aeronautical roles and functions, airports arealtering their operational management. Numerous airports (both public and private sector operated) have established real estate or property divisions todevelop their landside commercial areas as well as foster development beyondairport boundaries. They include UK airport operator, BAA, Aéroports de Paris(ADP), Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Frankfurt Airport (Fra-port), Amsterdam Schiphol and Singapore Changi.

Further extending their reach, some airports are even buying and/or operating other airports through special investment management divisions.

These new operational structures offer testimony that airports are evolv-ing from basic aeronautical infrastructures into complex multi-functional enterprises serving both aeronautical needs and commercial development. The current trend in airport management is therefore to complement traditional technical airport functions with terminal and landsidecommercial activities.

Such activities include: duty free shops; restaurants and specialty retail; cultural attractions; hotels and accommodation; business office complexes;convention and exhibition centres; leisure, recreation and fitness; logistics anddistribution; light manufacturing and assembly; perishables and cold storage;catering and other food services; Free Trade Zones and Customs Free Zones:golf courses; factory outlet stores and personal and family services such ashealth and child daycare.

To many not familiar with the new realities of airports, the airport city modelmight appear to be a deviation from the norm, but it is in fact becoming theway forward for international airports.

Airports from Amsterdam to Zurich and from Beijing to Seoul have embraced this planning model to develop their terminals and landside areasas a pivotal means to financing airport operations and contributing to theirown competitiveness. To note just a handful:

• Beijing is rapidly proceeding with its highly ambitious Capital Airport City, whose Masterplan takes an expansive definition of appropriate functions including, among others, shopping, entertainment,education, sports and leisure, light manufacturing, finance, trade and housing.

• ADP established a real estate division in 2003 to act as the developer, general contractor and construction project owner and manager of landside commercial properties at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly international airports.

• DFW’s management has been in the real estate development business for three decades, leasing land to commercial tenants.

• Hong Kong International Airport’s SkyCity is opening a one million square metre retail, exhibition, business office, hotel and entertainment complex near its passenger terminal. The first major phase will be in full operation by the end of 2006.

• Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s new airport city will be commercially anchored by its large Gateway Park that, in addition to retail and office development, includes motor sports, a automotive hypermarket and leisure venues drawing on the local as well as aviation-induced market.

• Incheon’s ‘Winged City’ encompasses international business areas, logistics zones, shopping and tourism districts, as well as housing andservices (eg; medical) for airport city workers and residents.

• Dubai World Central is a $32 billion airport city under development 25 miles south of downtown Dubai. Cornerstoned by a massive multi-modal air logistics hub, the airport city will include office towers, hotels, a mega-mall, golf course, and housing for 40,000 on-site workers. Its airport, commercial and residential zones will be connected by an internal light rail system.

• The new Bangkok International Airport (Suvarnabhumi) is expected to open in late 2006. Its Masterplan includes the development of an airport city within airport boundaries to include an international business centre, international conference and exhibition complex, shopping mall, office buildings, hotels, hospitals, restaurants, entertainment centre and an international resident community.

9AIRPORT CITIES

Figure 1Graphic courtesy of Dr John Kasarda.


• Amsterdam Schiphol, through its Schiphol Real Estate Group, has beeninvolved for well over a decade in landside commercial development. These developments include business office complexes, hotels, meeting and entertainment facilities, logistics parks, shopping and other commercial activities branded under the AirportCity name.

Other international airports, not quite the scale of Amsterdam Schiphol orSeoul’s Incheon, have given commercial development a high priority in their master planning (eg; Brisbane, Vienna, Calgary, Zurich and Stockholm-Arlanda). The majority of these have embraced the airport city concept in their strategic development models, either explicitly or implicitly.

The upshot is that airports are undergoing a metamorphosis, taking onmany of the commercial functions of a metropolitan Central Business District(CBD). With the growing number of boutiques, restaurants, meeting facilitiesand entertainment and cultural attractions, passenger terminals resembleparts of downtown.

Many airports also have the density of highway and rail connections thatare usually associated with CBDs. This is reinforcing their new roles as driv-ers of business location and urban development over an extended area.

The rise of the ‘aerotropolis’Even greater aviation-oriented commercial development is occurring well beyond airport boundaries. With the airport itself serving as a region-widemulti-modal transportation and commercial nexus, strings and clusters of airport-linked business parks, information and communications technologycomplexes, retail, hotel and entertainment centres, industrial parks, logisticsparks, wholesale merchandise marts and residential developments are forming along airport arteries up to 20 kilometres outward.

This more dispersed airport-linked development is giving rise to a newurban-form – the ‘aerotropolis’. Similar in shape to the traditional metropolis,made up of a central city and its commuter-linked suburbs, the aerotropolisconsists of an airport city core and extensive outlying areas of aviation-orientedbusinesses and their associated residential developments. A synthesisedmodel of the aerotropolis based on development features around major international hub airports is illustrated in Figure 1.

Reflecting the new economy’s demands for connectivity, speed and agility,the aerotropolis is optimised by corridor and cluster development, wide lanesand fast movements. In other words, form follows function. Airport express-way links (aero-lanes) complemented by airport express trains (aero-trains)

bring cars, taxis, buses, trucks and rail together with air infrastructure at the multi-modal commercial core (the airport city). Aviation-linked business clusters and associated residential developments radiate outward from theairport city, forming the greater aerotropolis.

Aerotropolises are emerging because of the advantages airports provideto businesses in the fast-paced, globally networked economy. Today’s most competitive manufacturers, for example, use advanced information technol-ogy and high-speed transportation to provide fast and flexible responses to customers’ unique needs. Such firms build agile production systems that connect them to their suppliers and customers, allowing them to source partsand ship assembled products as needed.

A manufacturer’s ability to meet customer demand also depends on theexistence of a comprehensive ground-to-air shipping network of air cargocarriers, trucking companies, freight forwarders and logistics providers. Thisnetwork has been strengthened as demand for time-sensitive manufacturingand distribution grows. Made possible primarily by proximity to an airport, aground-to-air shipping network allows manufacturers to minimise their inventories, shorten production-cycle times and quickly access novel inputsfor custom products that create additional value.

Like time-sensitive goods processing industries, the service sector has increasingly found airport areas to be an attractive location. Airports have become magnets for regional corporate headquarters, conference centres, trade representative offices and information-intensive firms that require executives and staff to undertake frequent long-distance travel. Business travellers benefit considerably from quick access to hub airports, which offer a greater choice of flights and destinations and more flexibility in rescheduling as well as often avoiding the costs ofovernight stays.

Firms specialising in information and communications technology andother high-tech industries consider air accessibility especially crucial. High-tech professionals travel by air at least 60% more frequently than otherprofessionals, giving rise to the term ‘nerd birds’ in the US for commercial aircraft connecting ‘techie’ capitals such as Austin, Boston, Raleigh-Durhamand San Jose. Many high tech firms are locating along major airport corridors,such as those along the Washington-Dulles Airport access corridor in North-ern Virginia and the expressways leading to Chicago’s O’Hare InternationalAirport. In this sense, knowledge networks and air travel networks increasingly reinforce each other.

10 AIRPORT CITIES

Picture courtesy of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.




13AIRPORT CITIES

Lastly, commercial services of all types have begun relocating to airport areasin order to attract a dual customer base of travellers and locals. Airports now offeron-site or nearby hotels, restaurants, shopping, fitness centres and entertain-ment facilities. As these offerings grow, areas within five kilometres of major air-ports are adding jobs considerably faster than suburbs located at similar distancesfrom downtown city centres, but not near an airport. Such job growth stimulates residential projects – further fuelling aerotropolis development. And airportsregions are even developing their own brand image to promote themselves,

examples of which include ‘the DFW Area’ and ‘the O’Hare Area’.In summary, by offering speedy distant market connectivity to aerotropolis

businesses, the airport provides important value to these businesses. Aerotropolis businesses, in turn, generate additional passengers and cargo for the airports, resulting in reciprocal benefits. Figure 2 illustrates these reciprocal benefits for Amsterdam Schiphol’s airport city and its greater Aerotropolis.

Although airport cities initially evolved in western countries, the broader Aerotropolis is emerging most vividly around Asia’s newer international gateway airports. This can be seen in developments at and near Hong Kong, Incheon and Beijing Capital airports and others planned for Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi gateway.

The future aerotropolis To serve the economic demands of connectivity, speed, and agility, the aerotropolis will require localised infrastructure planning on an unprecedented scale. To date, most have evolved largely spontaneously, with existing nearby development often creating arterial bottlenecks. In the future, strategic infrastructure planning could reduce this congestion.

Dedicated expressway links and high-speed rail should efficiently connect airports to business and residential clusters near and far. Special truck-only lanes should be added to airport expressways, asshould improved highway interchanges to reduce congestion. Multi-media technologies should produce themed electronic public art along airport transportation corridors that highlight the culture, history and economic assets of the region the airport serves.

Regional marketing through informative and tasteful public art should likewise characterise the airport’s terminals. By setting both the first and final impressions for many air travellers, the airport and its flights represent an area’sofficial welcome and send-off.

Global information and communications technology (ICT) networks will alsohelp shape the aerotropolis. Advanced information processing technologies and multi-media telecommunications systems served by

high-density fibre-optic rings and satellite uplinks and downlinks will evolve aroundairports, instantly connecting companies to their global suppliers, distributors, customers and branch offices and partners.

Companies that require the fastest possible networking will thus have an additional reason to locate in the aerotropolis. This ICT infrastructure is appearing not only around major passenger airports like Incheon and Washington-Dulles but also around US air express hubs such as Memphis (whichserves global shipper FedEx) and Louisville (which serves United Parcel Service).

As multi-modal transportation and advanced communications infrastructure develops at and near airports, businesses will have even more reason to move to an aerotropolis. The principal determinant of land value, leaserates, and the type of commercial use on a given property will be the cost of moving people and products to and from the airport and, via the airport, to distant markets.

This value/cost proposition will be measured primarily in time to the airport –a function of the site’s place on local transportation arteries, and not necessarily of spatial distance. For example, a site 10 kilometres away, but onestop on a high-speed train line from the airport, will be worth more than a site fivekilometres away with poor road and rail connections. To put it another way, thethree As – accessibility, accessibility, accessibility – will become the critical component of the three Ls – location, location, location – in aerotropolis real es-tate value.

At first glance, one might misconstrue aerotropolis land uses as simply additional sprawl along main airport transportation corridors. In reality, the aerotropolis grows according to a rational system based on time-cost accessgradients radiating outward from the airport.

Constructing appropriate multi-modal ground transit and locating commercial facilities consistent with the form and function of the aerotropolis will contribute substantially to the emerging needs of business, moreefficient cargo and passenger flows and the future competitiveness of urban areas.

These outcomes will not occur spontaneously, however. Aerotropolis optimisation will require bringing together airport planning, urban planning and business site planning in a synergistic manner so that development is economically efficient, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable. �

John Kasarda is a distinguished professor of management and a director of the KenanInstitute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

About the author

Figure 2

Graphic courtesy of Dr John Kasarda.


Its site may be only a fraction of the size of Denver or Dallas/FortWorth (DFW), but a fierce determination to make maximum use of its available land has led to Hong Kong

International Airport becoming one of the world’s first truly globalairport cities.

For in addition to continually upgrading its key infrastructure, operator Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), has set about transforming the gateway into an airport city that will help make thehub a ‘destination’ in its own right for both locals and visitors whether on business or pleasure.

SkyPlaza, one of the major components of the new Terminal 2 atHong Kong International Airport (HKIA), will provide a range of new

facilities and services for passengers and 55,000 airport workers. SkyPlaza will boast 38,000sqm of retail, catering and

entertainment facilities that include Asia largest “4D extreme screen”.Terminal 2 – linked to the existing terminal by Automated People

Mover system – will be located on top of an air-conditioned cross-boundary coach station. They will later be joined by two office

blocks with a total floor space of 30,000sqm, which will house AAHK’snew headquarters and a new Airport World Trade Centre.

Scheduled to open by the year end, Terminal 2 is possibly the mosthigh-profile part of AAHK’s colossal 57-hectare SkyCity developmentproject that aims to appeal to locals and capture business from Hong Kong’s 12 million visitors a year. Other first-phase SkyCity developments include AsiaWorld-Expo (an international exhibition centre), a nine-hole golf course, a second five-star airport hotel andSkyPier (a cross border ferry terminal), targeted to commence services in 2008.

AAHK CEO, Dr David Pang, has no doubts that the creation of anairport city, and in particular the opening of SkyPlaza with its

extensive range of retail and entertainment outlets, will lay the foundation for future traffic growth.

“I believe that the creation of an airport city is important for anyairport business and not just Hong Kong,” enthuses Pang. “It can become the focal point of all activities and provide a unique experience for customers.”

14 HONG KONG

Joe Bates reports on the transformation of Hong Kong International Airport into one of the world’s leading airport cities.

Skyhigh ambition

“I believe the creation of an airport city is important for any airport business and not just Hong Kong”


AsiaWorld-Expo boasts 70,000 square metres of rentable space with 10 state-of-the-art ground level, column free exhibitionhalls and the 13,500-seat AsiaWorld-Arena, the biggest purpose-builtseated indoor entertainment arena in Hong Kong.

Opened in December 2005, the HK$2.3 billion state-of-the-art facility is designed to host sophisticated world-class events ranging from major conferences and exhibitions to concerts and large-scale sporting and entertainment extravaganzas.

“One major role of Hong Kong is to serve as a regional hub and a base for international and, increasingly, mainland China companies to manage their business operations in East Asia,” says Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) chief executive, Donald Tsang. “A complementary role is to serve as a two-way springboard for companies from around the world wishing to access the mainland, in particular the Pearl River Delta, and for mainland companies to launch themselves into the international marketplace.

“It is no coincidence that many of the exhibitions to be held here in the coming years are to show off Chinese goods andservices to the world. Others will show the world’s best products to an increasingly sophisticated and substantial market in the mainland.”

The new facility – one of the world’s largest and most high-techexpo centres – was funded by a combination of public and private

sector investment, with Airport Authority Hong Kong contributing theland. Its own railway station means that visitors can literally walkstraight from the exhibition halls to the platform of the Airport Expresstrain and connect to anywhere in Hong Kong served by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR).

The popularity of golf across Asia seems certain to ensure the success of the airport’s new SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Course. Scheduled to open by early 2007, the HK$100 million developmentproject is set within an aesthetically attractive environment with alandscape of undulating greens, artificial lake and extensive sandbunkers. It is also Hong Kong's first nine-hole golf course featuring an‘island green’.

Airport Management Services (AMS), a wholly owned subsidiaryof the King Power Group (Hong Kong), is responsible for investing inand operating the golf course at HKIA’s Lantau Island site.

Adds Pang: “The golf course will prove another magnificent new addition to the airport infrastructure designed to serve the ever growing number of people living in and visiting Hong Kong. It is exactly the type of facility we want as we aim to create a unique and memorable experience for all our passengers.”

AAHK's commercial director, Hans Bakker, is certainly in agreement about the value of the new golf course to the airport. He says: "As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining

15HONG KONG


16 HONG KONG

service excellence, we continue to introduce new innovation and elements in airport services so as to amuse all visitors to the airportisland. The new golf course is destined to be another signature facility which will further enhance HKIA's positioning as a destinationin its own right."

Other Lantau Island located tourist attractions include Hong KongDisneyland, the giant Buddha at Po Lin Monastery and the soon to beopened Ngong Ping Skyrail, a spectacular 5.7km cable car journeybetween Tung Chung town centre and Ngong Ping.

As if to prove that there is no end to Hong Kong International Airport’s versatility, the gateway is also looking to become a majortrading hub for one of the world’s most precious metals if the Hong Kong Government gives the go-ahead for the opening of an on-site gold depository.

The facility would help feed rising demand from mainland China,which now accounts for more than 400 tonnes of gold per year or12% of the world supply.

Says Pang: “It’s all about how we define our business. We believethat an airport is the centre of flow of people, goods, information andmoney. We already handle a lot of gold and other precious metals sowhy not take the next step and establish a gold logistics centre on-site? This can take the form of a centralised gold depository for thestorage of gold and a place for the physical trade and settlement of

deals. Hong Kong’s business strategy is to remain one of the world’sleading financial and business centres and such a facility would certainly help.”

Mainland China, the giant on its doorstep with a population of 1.3billion people, is reason enough for HKIA to feel confident about future traffic growth. The airport handled 40.7 million passengers(+9.7%) and 3.4 million tonnes of cargo (+10%) in 2005 andthroughput is expected to rise by 5% per annum for the next 20 years as the Chinese economy develops and more Chinese travel abroad.

Pang believes that Hong Kong’s strategic location, facilities andextensive route network means that it can become China’s equivalent of Chicago O’Hare in the US in terms of a domestic hub.

“With the Civil Aviation Administration of China predicting that 1.4billion people will board flights in China in 2020, slightly more than inthe US today, we need look no further than mainland China for themain source of future traffic,” enthuses Pang. “In 20 years time Hong Kong has to be doing what Chicago is doing for the US today.Chicago serves the whole United States and we have to serve the whole of mainland China by offering a comprehensive domestic network.”

In the face of such prolific anticipated growth, the importance of SkyCity to Hong Kong International Airport cannot be underestimated.

�



18 DUBAI

Dubai’s substantial oil reserves matched with a modest number of citizens give it financial strength. As an Arab state,Dubai appeals to investors from other oil-producing states,

with plentiful funds flowing from higher-priced oil. Its location makes Dubai a natural hub for business travellers

to the Gulf, as well as connecting travellers from Europe, Africa and Asia. Furthermore, there is plenty of room for airport expansionand other related developments.

This combination of real assets and a unique approach is encouraging the development of a truly extraordinary airport city.

Dubai International Airport will soon have three terminals, three concourses and a separate cargo terminal. More than a hundred airlines carried nearly 25 million passengers in 2005,connecting to markets totalling over 1.4 billion people. The fastestgrowing airport in the Middle East, Dubai also wins awards for thequality of its service.

Having recently improved its other transportation infrastructure, Dubai ports unload ships in just 24 hours, a third faster than Rotterdam, and a Free Zone offers special incentives to businesses. A rail system is also scheduled to connect the gateway with the rest of metropolitan Dubai by 2012.

Oil, aviation and accommodating policies have boosted Dubai’s gross domestic product by 45% in just four years. And plans are now in place to build a new gateway – Dubai World Central International Airport – and airport city on a 140 square kilometre site in nearby Jebel Ali. The site will be surrounded by 140 square kilometres of entirely new businesses, leisure centres, commercial areas and various other facilities.

Symbolising its ambition, Dubai plans to have the world's tallestskyscraper, its largest shopping mall, and its largest man-made marina on – of course – the world’s biggest artificial island.

Specialist management firm, Tatweer, was launched by parent corporation, Dubai Holding, last December to realise these gigantic plans. Ahmad Sharaf, a senior executive with Tatweer, expects Dubai’s airport and airline connections to play the same rolein developing the Middle East that railroads played in the development of the American West. Sharaf says his instructions are:“Let's do it bigger, let's do it better, and let's do it smarter.”

Dubai’s airport city will be an ensemble of special-purpose cities, or ‘neighbourhoods’. There is Dubai Industrial City, which waslaunched in November of 2004, Healthcare City is a joint project with Harvard Medical School, and Dubailand will offer extraordinary tourist attractions to visitors. Also planned or underway are Media City, Internet City, Knowledge Village, the DubaiTechno Park and a Biotechnology and Research Park.

Healthcare City

The bulk of investment has so far come from the Persian Gulf. ButDubai is seeking access to wider resources. For foreign investors,Dubai is offering very attractive terms: no profit taxes; no customs;no restrictions on transferring funds; and very little red tape to tan-gle up the growth.

Harvard Medical School will help Dubai develop Healthcare City as a global centre for treatment, as well as medical education and research, while Tatweer will invest a further $1.8 billion into the project, which is expected to open in 2009.

The collaboration between Harvard and Dubai began in December 2003 with Practi-Med Dubai, a continuing education programme for practicing doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Healthcare City will build on this to include the HarvardMedical School Dubai Centre (HMSDC) Institute for Postgraduate

Bigger,better,smarterDubai’s planned new airport city at Jebel Ali is expected to set the standards that others will follow,writes Henry Canaday.


19DUBAI

Education and Research – the first time Harvard Med has establisheda postgraduate institution outside the US.

Dubailand will be the world’s largest amusement and sportsparks. With three billion square feet of facilities spread over an arealarger than Manhattan, Dubailand will include a Global Village that showcases music, dance, arts, theatre and cuisine from across theglobe. Sports will be well represented with a 60,000-seat stadium. A Snowdome, offering skiing and other winter exercise not naturallyavailable in the Gulf, also began construction in February of 2006. In all, nearly $10 billion of Dubailand construction is now under way, a sum that is expected to rise to $18 billion by the end of 2007.

Mercantile Exchange

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a 110-acre free financial zone, began operations in September 2005. Accommodat-ing several financial sectors, firms licensed to operate in DIFC canenjoy advantages such as no tax on profits, no limits on foreign ownership and free movement of funds in and out of Dubai. “If it'sgood for business, it's good for Dubai,” says Sharaf.

Within the DIFC will be Dubai’s Mercantile Exchange (DME), whichis scheduled to open in 2006. The DME will offer the first energy futures exchange in the Middle East, and authorities promise it willprovide price transparency and market liquidity.

And with so many new facilities, Dubai must expand its accommodation facilities for both visitors and residents. The tiny principality received six million tourists in 2005, and more than 90%of its hotel space was filled. Hotel revenue topped $2 billion in 2005,up more than a third from the prior year.

Tatweer predicts that tourism will more than double to 15 million visitors by 2010, and CEO Saeed Al Muntafiq has announced plans to build 31 new hotels and other tourism facilities over the next eight years. The project will cost $27 billion, of which Tatweer will invest $11 billion, with private investors expected to frontthe rest.This will be the largest single development project in historyto be financed largely with private funds.

Trump Towers

The centrepiece will be the world's largest hotel, Asia-Asia,shaped like the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and offering6,500 rooms, while another 12,000 rooms will be available in 12luxury hotels. These premium premises will be themed to reflect thevariety of visitors expected and will include the Desert Gate, the Land of Arabia, the Wild Wild West, Africa World and even a Pirate's Cove Hotel.

About 17,000 rooms will be available in 19 other hotels, most ofwhose designs and names are still to be designated by third-party developers. One such party, the Trump Organization, has already announced a partnership with Nakheel Hotel and Resorts to build the Trump International Hotel and Tower. This new TrumpTower’s 48 floors will have 300 hotel rooms and 360 apartments,and is expected to open in 2009.

Emphasises Sharif: “The hope is that we propagate change forgood for Dubai and the surrounding region.” �



Height of FashionUnder the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

signed earlier this year, Incheon International Airport is to oversee the creation of its very own Fashion Island between

2007 and 2010.The airport, which is joining forces with the Fédération Française du

Prêt à Porter Féminin and the fashion company Prêt à Porter IslandFashion Inc, claims that the project will offer an “exciting new experience for everyone”.

To be built on a 180-acre site next to the airport, Fashion Islandcomes with a $750 million price tag and will comprise a fashion convention centre, fashion academy, shopping mall and a host of otherhaute couture facilities.

The bulk of the construction for the Fashion Island will be carried outby Prêt à Porter Island Fashion Inc, based on designs drafted by international architectural firm for the airport authority, which wants thefacility to become a fashion centre for Asia and a world-class fashion hub.

Height of Fashion

21INCHEON

Incheon International Airport is set to open its own Fashion Island as part of its airport city development programme, writes Joe Bates.


22 INCHEON

IIAC’s president & CEO, Jaehee Lee, says: “Fashion Island represents the start of our giant Air City project that will transform Incheon from just an airport into one of Asia’s premier tourist attractions and an engine that will drive renewed growth for the Korean economy.”

He expects the development to have a “far ranging impact onKorea’s textiles and related industries” as it appeals to a combinationof shoppers, fashion specialists and those in search of culture.

The Fédération Française du Prêt à Porter Féminin boasts a membership that includes over 500 famous names and has joined withKorean investors to form Prêt à Porter Island Fashion Inc. Other localcompanies with an interest in the Fashion Island project include LotteShopping and Kyobo Securities.

Prêt à Porter Island Fashion Inc will also play a part in the secondphase development of Air City’s International Business Centre (IBC)and the development of a second airport railway station adjacent tothe terminal building.

Tax free

The airport provided further proof of its ambitions earlier this year when it opened Korea’s first Free Trade Zone. The two million squaremetre facility includes a Cargo Terminal and Airport Logispark – a newlogistics centre – that will provide tenants with benefits such as tax-free storage and the possibility for light manufacture to add value to goods.

Establishing itself as the ‘world-class’ logistics hub for NortheastAsia is certainly one of the main aims of IIAC, which believes that theKorea-China-Japan triangle will prove the centre of North East Asiangrowth over the coming decades.

Incheon is currently the third busiest airport in the world for international cargo traffic, exporting nearly $19 billion worth of goodsyearly. Trans-shipments account for 46.5% of the cargo handled withthe bulk of consignments made up of high-end goods such as semi-conductors and wireless communication devices.

Other Air City projects currently being considered by IIAC includethe construction of a water park, golf course and additional hotels closeto those at the existing International Business Centre.

The airport authority is confident that the creation of Air City alongwith the continued expansion of its core aviation facilities – forecastspredict it could be handling up to 100mppa and seven million tonnes of cargo yearly by 2020 – will help it fulfill its goal of becom-ing a global top five hub by 2010.

Rapid growth since its opening, and a predicted annual increase inpassengers of at least 4.8% for the next 15 years, ensure that despiteits comparatively recent opening, Incheon International Airport needsadditional facilities to cope with future demand. Work is currently underway on a new 30-gate concourse and third runway (4,000m) aspart of its planned $4.8 billion second phase development. They willlater be joined by an intra-airport transit system.

There are also plans to almost double the size of today’s International Business Centre to 330,000sqm by 2008 to allow for theaddition of more offices and hotels. And IIAC has given the green-lightfor the construction of a new 1.8 million tonnes per annum capacitycargo terminal that will increase the airport’s total capacity from today’s2.7 million to 4.5 million tonnes.

The airport could ultimately have two passenger terminals, fourconcourses and four runways.

In the meantime, access is to be improved with the March 2007 completion of a 61.5km railway linking Incheon with downtown SeoulStation and the construction of a second bridge linking the Yongjong Island located airport with the mainland. Stretching 12.3km over seawater, the six-lane Incheon Grand Bridge will be the longest bridge inKorea and sixth longest in the world when it opens in early 2009.

The planned new facilities, and Incheon’s growing reputation as one of the world’s most passenger friendly gateways – it was rated the best gateway in the world in ACI’s annual customer satisfaction survey – ensure that Incheon International Airport hascome a long way in just five years. Its Air City development programme,however, almost certainly means that the best is yet to come. �

Picture courtesy of Fentress Bradburn.



24 SCHIPHOL

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – operating under the auspicesof the Schiphol Group – was arguably the first airport in the

world to develop the city concept.At first sight the Dutch gateway’s ‘Creating AirportCities’ initia-

tive – established more than a decade ago – appeared to be a truly radical departure from the more tried and trusted methods of airportmanagement. But for the Schiphol Group the development was reallymore a process of evolution than revolution.

Amsterdam had long been a prime European transit point andwas already offering round-the-clock services and amenities for itsmany transfer passengers. Effective operations allowed these activities to seamlessly combine with the airport’s core transport andlogistics functions, resulting in a cluster of awards for excellence – and a substantial increase in non-aviation revenues.

“It led to the idea that this concept could be further developedand enhanced,” comments the Schiphol Group’s consumer products, senior manager, Suredj Autar.

The Schiphol Group decided an excellent airport could be distinguished from its more conventional competitors by offering visitors something over and above the ‘run-of-the-mill’. The AirportCity concept revolved around Schiphol functioning as a dynamic hub,integrating people and businesses, logistics and shops, informationand entertainment.

It was also deemed vital that the gateway operated as an effi-cient, multi-modal hub – combining air, rail and road transport – andas a location offered its visitors and locally-based international businesses all the support services required on a 24/7 basis.

For Autar, there are two prime advantages to the AirportCity project.On the one hand it results in satisfied passengers, who actively decide to come back time and again to travel via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. By making the gateway their hub of choice, Schiphol benefits from increased revenues from non-aviation activities such as retail and F&Bprogammes and improved returns to the balance sheet.

On the other hand, Autar points out the concept has generated significant increases in business activity, with many internationalcompanies establishing offices at the airport or in its immediate vicinity. This not only enhances local employment and economicactivity but also drives additional air traffic to and from the airport.

“The company creates and develops AirportCities on the basis ofa well-thought out, visitor-driven perspective, which assumes thatan airport should not only be a perfect stop in the travel process, buta unique experience,” notes Autar.

While the Schpihol Group’s mission is to generate sustainable value for its stakeholders by creating and developing AirportCities worldwide, Amsterdam Airport is the company’s flagship enterprise and ispositioned as such.

Evolution not revolutionMark Chivers explores the philosophy of the Schiphol Group, one of the originators of the airport cityconcept and still blazing a trail today.


“It is here that the development and implementation of the AirportCity concept is most advanced,” Autar informs. “The experience and expertise acquired here is used in applying the concept or parts of the concept to other international airports, both partially owned and operated by Schiphol Group – such as Rotterdam and Eindhoven airports in Holland, Terminal 4 at New YorkJFK, and Brisbane, Australia.”

The Schiphol Group also has commercial ties with Stockholm Arlanda Airport (retail), Sukarno Hatta Airport, Jakarta (automated border passage service programme), Milan Malpensa (real estate)and Hong Kong (real estate).

City planningCreating an airport city along the lines of Amsterdam, of course, is acomplex process and requires extensive and flexible planning.Schiphol has a long-standing Masterplan, which although continu-ally updated as the AirportCity concept has matured, still retains a valid framework. The Masterplan currently reaches out to 2020 and beyond.

“We will need space for an additional terminal and maybe evenrunways,” reveals Autar. “But much of the land is already in our possession. Further development of the AirportCity concept is an integral part of the Masterplan, and we also work closely with thelocal authorities who are essential contacts for land use planning, soin this respect land use is not an issue.”

Aiming to stay ahead of the curve, the Schiphol Group is constantly reviewing possible enhancements to the AirportCity experience. For example, Amsterdam recently opened the first of two‘Airport Lobbies’. These unique areas feature reception rooms simi-lar to business-class lounges where companies can welcome theirmost important clients before they board the aircraft.

In the short to medium term, there are also plans to develop agolf course and hotel/club house adjacent to the airport, cateringboth for passengers in transit and the Schiphol business community.A conference centre – to be called the Schiphol Forum – and a 220-room ‘lifestyle hotel’ are also on the agenda. The hotel is to bebuilt by a third party on leased land.

The airport has also embarked on a two-month trial of a newpassenger information service called Fuel for Travel. Via a laptopdocking station, this allows passengers to download films, music

and tourist information of the city or country that they are travellingto prior to their flight.

It is this type of innovative offering that has successfully drawnpassengers into the AirportCity concept – and helped to boost passenger numbers. Passenger traffic for the first half of 2006 has already exhibited growth of around 4% over the previous year, withSchiphol handling over 21 million passengers. In June 2006 alone,4.1 million travellers passed through the facility.

Certainly Amsterdam’s own quarterly passenger surveys, as wellas passenger polls from other organisations and business travel magazines, all reveal positive feedback. “We also see it in the comments of passengers who have visited facilities such as the Amsterdam Schiphol Rijksmuseum, which houses 10 paintings byDutch masters on permanent display and regular temporary exhibitions, or the meditation centre, casinos, in-terminal hotel andcommunications centres,” says Autar.

How to planFor other airports looking to build a city concept, Autar first and foremost,recommends an extensive route network – Schiphol has around 90 passenger airlines serving more than 240 destinations. “Also you must have a good basic infrastructure,” he says. Amsterdam’s one termi-nal layout, with piers arching off, is an efficient use of space and ideal for passenger wayfinding.

“Furthermore, you must have influence on or the ability to control re-tail and real estate developments and to develop these in relation to the aviation activities,” adds Autar.

“Only when the basic infrastructure and processes are available andwell organised can the passenger have quality time to spend on shopping and other forms of entertainment or experience the airport’s wide range of services and facilities. As we say, the AirportCity concept may also be described as the ‘Don’t Worry – Be Happy’ concept.”

And of course, Autar stresses the airport must never lose sight of itscore activity – facilitating efficient passenger travel. “The growth of passengers, cargo and air traffic is, and will always be, the main driver for the further development of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol andSchiphol Group’s AirportCity concept,” concludes Autar. “Thus, we will never lose sight of the necessity to further develop air traffic as our core business.”

25SCHIPHOL

�


26 DENVER

The 10-year-old Denver International Airport (DIA) north-east ofdowntown Denver has begun to accumulate the business, residen-tial and retail developments that will ultimately make 300 square

miles of the Colorado prairie a true airport city. The area has a current population of slightly more than 300,000

people, projected to nearly double by 2030. The development of less than50 square miles is already contributing $15 billion to metropolitan Denver'seconomy. Extending development into the remaining 250 square milesshould lift that figure to well over $90 billion by 2030, as nearly a third ofall employment growth in the Denver area will occur in DIA’s airport city.

Therefore, the DIA Partnership has been founded to guide and support growth by bringing together elected officials, property owners, infrastructure leaders and businesses.

DIA Partnership president, Julie Bender, says Denver’s number-oneasset is that: “DIA is the first major new airport built in the United Statesin the last 25 years, with large tracts of land available.”

Yet Denver has faced challenges in making the most of this asset, someof them local.

“International companies understood the significance of a new international airport much better than local companies,” Bender notes.“Over the last ten years, the growth around DIA has exceeded initial expectations of the region’s planners. But we are still in the very earlystages of growth and development. This is a 40 to 50-year project, not a ten-year project.”

To date, the plans and progress at Denver have been impressive. Thenew Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge will offer 27 square miles ofnatural beauty populated by eagles, hawks, coyotes and deer right alongside Pena Boulevard, the connecting road between Denver and DIA.

Nearby Commerce City will offer a visitors' centre, environmental education campus, lodge and conference facility. The City will eventually bethe site of the new Colorado Rapids Stadium for Colorado’s football team,and work has also already begun on Reunion, a 2,500-acre developmentof residences, businesses, schools and recreation facilities. The 52-acre Reunion Park, which will include an amphitheatre, athletic fields, naturetrails, lakes and waterfalls, is now half-way to being completed.

To the north in nearby Brighton, a 12-screen cinema and a variety ofrestaurants have now opened, and additional eateries, offices, retail out-lets and residential townhouses are also in the pipeline, and the newly expanded medical centre at Platte Valley will open its doors by 2007, following around $138 million worth of investments.

Meanwhile, the availability of Denver’s old airport, Stapleton, and twoclosed military facilities ended up presenting Denver with some big development opportunities to help lay its foundation as an airport city, whilealso setting a new national redevelopment model for projects of this type.

In Aurora, nearly 600 acres of a US military medical centre is being regenerated in order to become the centre of the University of Colorado’shealth science and biotechnology facilities. When completed, the new medical centre will occupy 15 million square feet and employ 32,000 people. Aurora will also be the site of a new children's hospital, a facilitythat will be devoted to the health of Native Americans, as well as a 1.4 million-square-foot veterans' medical centre.

Another former military facility, Lowry Air Force Base, is also being redeveloped, with 3,000 homes, 100 businesses and 10 schools already in place there, and similar work is also underway at the old Stapleton Airport, where there are now 1,600 homes, 80 retail outlets and three new schools on-site.

Henry Canaday reports on Denver’s airport city development plans.

GrowingplacesGrowingplaces

All pictures courtesy of Denver International Airport.


27DENVER

However, according to Bender, the most impressive of all will bethe $4.7 billion FasTracks project, connecting all the developmentswithin Denver’s airport city. Involving the construction of 119 miles oflight and commuter rail throughout the Denver area, FasTracks issomething that local voters actually agreed to pay higher taxes for lastyear in order to help fund its development.

“When the airport was first built we hoped for a rail connectionfrom downtown Denver to the airport,” she remembers. “Now we willhave FasTracks, with nine corridors to tie together the entire metropolitan region, including Boulder, 30 miles to the north, as wellas the airport.”

Denver expects the federal government to approve its share of FasTracks funding, allowing the complete hub-and-spoke rail systemto be finished by 2015. This system will not only connect DIA to its natural markets, but will also help limit sprawl and congestion throughout the entire airport city.

So far, most of the construction work close to DIA has been residential, according to DIA Partnership chairman, Jeff Willis. “Westarted out five years ago with starter homes in the mid-100s, but now we are seeing some new builds in the million-and-a-half range,offering executive homes for the leaders of new companies,” he says.“But hotels are also now being added near the airport, and retail development will become more important as the region grows.”

The DIA region is the natural path of growth for Denver, which is constrained to the West by the Rocky Mountains. This region is spacious, and its property was conveniently concentrated. “One advantage we had in building master-planned residential communi-ties is that the land was owned by large property owners, rather thanbeing fragmented,” Willis notes. “For example, we built Reunion on3,000 acres from one owner.”

Willis confirms that Washington Dulles and Dallas-Ft Worth airportsacted as the models for DIA’s development, but Denver wanted to ensure it actually improved upon these models by planning thoroughly.

“Dulles is only now talking about adding a Metro line, but we have already approved a 119-mile rail system that will cost around thesame as just one Metro line to Dulles.” He adds. “Building any kind of infrastructure is much cheaper when it is done early, before the landfills up.”

Denver has worked hard to allay airport-noise fears by giving DIA a 53-square-mile footprint and banning any development within two milesof its runways. Following Dulles’s example, the Partnership is compiling ahomebuyer’s guide that gives people moving into the area all the factsabout noise in plain English so they can make informed buying choices.

Moreover, until the work is done, Denver must manage people’s expectations. “The day DIA opened, the community expected hotelsand other developments to spring up like a new downtown,” Bender recalls. “When we build the FasTracks, they will also expect rapid development at every station. That clearly will not happen, but the newtransportation system will eventually have a great impact. People aresometimes disappointed in the short term, but over the longer termthe impact is greater than anyone expects.”

She is certainly confident the positives greatly outweigh any so-called negatives. “Dulles and DFW showed that having an airport neighbour is very beneficial. The economic impact of the airport al-lows you to attract higher-wage employment because many peoplea n d �



The Düsseldorf Airport City project is being built on strong foundations. Its region, North-Rhine Westphalia(NRW),is one of Europe’s most important economically – an

industrial heartland of 18 million inhabitants within a 100km catchment area.

The airport itself is Germany’s third largest and handles approximately 16.5 million passengers annually. The departure boards light up over 170 domestic, European and international destinations, served by no fewer than 70 airlines.

CEO, Christoph Blume, believes the gateway’s plans will emphasise the role of Düsseldorf International as the runway forbusiness in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.

“As the process of globalisation continues, mobility will become an even more crucial factor in successfully doing business,” he says. “As a response to this, Düsseldorf Airport City offers attractive mobility solutions in two dimensions. The first is the direct connection to the area’s powerful economy and

the second is the easy accesibility of flights to anywhere in the world.”

Blume notes that as a commercial enterprise, the airport is always interested in new business segments that supplement itscore activities. Property development is an obvious component ofthis strategy so when, in 2003, the airport had the opportunity topurchase an adjoining barracks compound formerly used by theBritish army, it didn’t hesitate.

With these 23 hectares at its disposal, the airport developed thecity concept in conjunction with architectural firm JSK, which also designed Düsseldorf’s new terminal building. Flughafen Düsseldorf Immobilien GmbH & Co KG, a subsidiary of Flughafen DüsseldorfGmbH, actually owns the property and has been made responsiblefor the planning and development phases.

Plans call for a state-of-the-art business and office centre complex with easy access to the airport terminal. There will be250,000sqm of office space with buildings ranging in size from

A runway for businessMark Chivers explores the airport city development plans of Germany’s third largest gateway.

29DÜSSELDORF


30 DÜSSELDORF

3,000-30,000sqm. Building plots are being sold to investors, whowill then carry out the construction work themselves.

The venture is proceeding apace. The anchor project – a conference hotel by the Maritim hotel group – is already underway. The foundation stone for the building was laid in January 2006 in the presence of Oliver Wittke, minister for traffic in North Rhine Westphalia, and Joachim Erwin, mayor of Düsseldorf.

Indicative of Düsseldorf’s ambition and the allure of the city concept, the Maritim hotel will be the largest in the whole of NRW. In addition to hosting conferences, it will offer the usual mod cons of a top quality hotel such as a restaurant, bar, fitnesscentre and swimming pool. “It has 533 rooms and capacity for more than 5,000 conference guests,” enthuses Blume. “The build-ing will enhance the quality of the entire location.”

The hotel will have a striking triangular pedestal design with a passage linking it to the terminal building’s departure level. The external façade will make use of aluminium, glass and natural stoneto further underline its dynamic appearance. It is scheduled to be completed in November 2007.

While the hotel is being built, the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI – Association of German Engineers) will also establish itsnew, 14,000sqm headquarters. Situated next door to the conference facility, the construction underlines the interest inDüsseldorf’s development.

An underground parking facility with around 1,800 parkingspaces on three levels is already in use on the site and option contracts have been signed on many other plots. Full developmentof the business park is expected some time around 2013. “It fitsperfectly into the airport’s infrastructure including the terminal building and the railway station,” says Blume.

The perfect fit will have a perfect look. A competition to enhancethe scenic quality of the Airport City and landscape the free spaceswas won by Vogts of Zurich. The company will integrate ‘park-like’green areas into the site using old tree stocks.

As befits the city concept, Düsseldorf Airport also offers multi-modal links into its hinterland. Trains stop at the airport 400 times a day and the gateway has direct access to the motorway, meaning both it and the Airport City are easilyreached by car from all directions. Such transport links will further the movement of both goods and people into and out of thecity site.

Crucially, developing the business park site should make sound financial sense. “We realise a direct profit by selling the plots,” informs Blume. “We expect synergies between the airport and ‘airport city’, so about 5,000 people will have employment. As the airport city grows the economic impact of the airport will grow, too.”

It’s certainly true that business draws in yet more business in a virtuous cycle. NRW is the world’s seventh-largesteconomic region with Düsseldorf alone hosting more than 40,000companies. The city has the second-largest Japanese expatriatecommunity in the world and – not surprisingly, given the proximityof international industrial, trading and transportation companies – isknown as the ‘desktop of the Ruhr valley’.

The airport city development makes Düsseldorf not only a major hub for international air traffic but also a hub for international business.

Feedback from companies has been strong and making full useof the office space and amenities on offer shouldn’t prove a problem. “Companies often place extremely high demands on theirchoice of location,” notes the airport CEO. “It must be equally presentable, well-connected locally and internationally accessible. Itshould allow room for positive development and be able to profitfrom its economic surroundings. It should offer room for individual-ity while already being structurally fully developed. Last but notleast, it should have a dynamic, congenial flair.”

The airport may once have been simply a traffic interchange buta steadily growing number of top-rank businesses from the retailand service sectors have already set up operations in the vicinity.

“There are already 240 companies operating [at the airport],among them many brand-name merchandisers,” adds Blume.“Therefore, there is a huge and increasing interest in DüsseldorfAirport City as the signed contracts, the completed undergroundparking facility and the current projects prove.”

With a project of such potential, it may be tempting to concentrate efforts away from the gateway’s core activities, butBlume assures this will never happen. Instead, he sees the airportcity as complementary to the airport’s ambitions, an asset that willallow both entities to grow.

“Düsseldorf is North-Rhine Westphalia’s largest airport and thegateway to Germany’s most populated state,” he explains. “The airport city project endorses and enriches the importance of the airport.” �



Surrounded on three sides by the glittering Indian Ocean and partly builtover the sea itself, the $5.5 billion New Doha International Airport prom-ises to be an airport city unlike any other.

Built on a piece of land that is equal in size to one quarter of the current cityof Doha, the brand new gateway will be three times the size of Doha’s existingairport and will be able to handle around six times as many passengers.

And with its name, ‘Doha’, literally translating from Arabic as ‘bay’, the watertheme chosen for its design perfectly compliments its location on the east coastof the Qatar Penninsula.

“There was naturally a strong link with the ocean as the peninsula is surrounded by water,” explains Rudy Vercelli, the vice president for aviation atBechtel, the company that has designed and is building the new Doha gateway.“So the entire airport has been designed to look and act like a wave.”

The roof of the main passenger terminal undulates like a series of waves,and slots in the roof let the daylight in while also casting shadows that run acrossthe terminal floor as the day progresses, enhancing the feeling of movement. Theterminal is a large, light, airy facility, with big open areas to give passengers asense of space but without creating a sterile, hangar-like atmosphere.

All passenger processing areas will be located at the lowest point of the roof’s undulations – a decision that is expected to create a ‘cosy’ feel for passengers – and Vercelli says that natural materials such as wood will be utilisedin these areas to enhance the feeling of warmth.

Alongside the main terminal, the exclusive Emiri Terminal, which houses luxurious facilities for royalty, high government officials and other VIP passengers,

also continues the aquatic theme. With its layered, curved walls and high trian-gular sections, part of the terminal rises up like three big sails, resembling yachtsfloating on the surrounding sea.

Even the mosque has been designed to look like a droplet of water, with its glass exterior shell and a gently domed roof. It is set in a pool of water in the middle of a leafy garden, and passengers will be able to access it using a bridge.

“Being somewhere that temperatures frequently soar to over 50 degreescentigrade in the summer, it made sense to use the cooling water theme at Doha,”Vercelli continues. “Passengers must travel on a causeway over the water to get to the airport, and there are also various water features through the airport, including a large saltwater lagoon by the main entrance.”

But the aquatic theme also runs even deeper than it may first appear. According to Vercelli, a significant part of the New Doha site was previously the city rubbish dump and much of the household and construction waste was dumped in the water. In order to prepare the site for construction, it had to be dredged and cleaned up, then partially filled in so that work on the new airport city could begin.

Says Vercelli: “In what turned out to be one of the biggest remediation proj-ects ever to take place in the Middle East, we extracted around six million cubicmetres of waste, which we then treated and moved to a new landfill site. Wei d e n t i f i e d specific reclamation areas from the seabed and took careful steps to ensure we maintained the ecological balance in these areas throughout the

32 DOHA

MakingwavesDoha’s dream of creating one of the world’s top gateways and a leading airport city is about to become reality, writes Jane Austin.


construction process. Thanks to our efforts to clean up the area, pollution levelsare now much lower than before, and all the local plant and sea life have a much cleaner habitat.”

Construction work is being conducted in a series of phases, with the first duefor completion during 2009, the same year that host airline Qatar Airways isscheduled to take delivery of the first of its four orders with Airbus for A380s. Infact, New Doha International Airport is also one of the first international gatewaysever to be designed and built specifically to accommodate the double-deckerA380, as well as other new-generation large wide-bodied aircraft.

The New Doha development will be completed in its entirety sometime dur-ing 2015, at which point the terminal building will cover a total of 650,000 squaremetres. There will be 80 contact gates available, providing the ability to park upto 100 aircraft at any one time. New Doha’s capacity will also allow for about 50million passengers and two million tonnes of cargo each year, seeing an annualtotal of around 360,000 landings and take-offs.

On opening, the passenger terminal will be the biggest building in Doha, covering the equivalent of around 50 full size football pitches. Moreover, the newairport’s check-in and retail areas alone will be big enough to fit ten wide-bodiedaircraft, side-by-side, making them twelve times bigger than at the old Doha Airport.

In order to ensure that walking times are minimised for passengers wantingto get to their gates, moving walkways will be strategically placed around the terminal in order to shorten the distance as much as possible, and the gates andpassenger processing facilities will also be positioned to help minimise

this further.As well as offering passengers an automated people mover to help them get

around the new airport with ease, Vercelli confirms that New Doha will also actas a multi-modal transportation centre, providing seamless connections betweenland, air and sea.

“As part of our plan, a bridge will also be built in order to provide a connec-tion with the nearby port, which is situated around 8km offshore. Once this is upand running, passengers will be able to connect with New Doha International Air-port whichever way suits them best – whether it be on a ship, by aircraft or viathe causeway,” he explains.

New Doha’s ‘airport city’ status will be assured by its impressive array of extrafacilities. In addition to the mosque, cargo terminal and aircraft maintenancehangar, around 100 hectares of land alongside the new gateway have been reserved for commercial development, where passengers will find a free tradezone, offices and a business park, hotels and a retail mall, amongst other things.

“New Doha was designed to be a world class airport, so it will have all of theamenities and facilities that a passenger would expect from such a place, but itwill also have quite a few surprises too,” says Vercelli. “The existing site will continue to expand in order to generate more and more new business there. Farfrom operating a runway, airports are fast becoming centres for generating anddeveloping new businesses, and various different things such as hotels, conference centres and retail zones are now commonplace.

“If a gateway is designed with this in mind but with the airport itself acting as a central anchor for the whole project, and people go there for

33DOHA

�


More than 40 years ago, in March 1964, a Tupelov 104 took off eastbound from Domodedovo to Sverdlovsk marking the birth of a new airport in Moscow.

Although the construction of the main terminal building was still in progress (it was not officially opened for a further 14 months) Domodedovo was soon flying passengers to all corners of Russia.

It’s clearly an airport that has never believed in waiting around for things to happen, and the rapid progress which followed – including the first non-stop flight of the supersonic Tu-144 to Alma-Ata 11 years later, and the launch of international servicesto Ankara – has seldom let up.

Domodedovo, which lies 22km south-east of Moscow, now services around 50 airlines, operating most of the domestic flights (apart from Aeroflot) and hosts a growing number of major international carriers, including Swiss, Thai Airways, Singapore Airways, China Eastern, Iberia, Emirates and British Airways, which switched all its Moscow flights from Sheremetyevo in July 2003.

Today, Domodedovo can justifiably claim to be an airport city in its own right, fuelled by an ongoing reconstruction programme carried out by the Eastline Group over the last 11 years.

Its Eastline Handling arm was established as the single operator responsible for all ground services handling at Domodedovo, and the group provides a range of other services to airlines including cargo, fuelling, maintenance and catering. It also operates the 294-room Domodedovo Aerohotel, where facilities include a fitness gym with modern work-out facilities, solarium, saunas, beauty parlour and snooker room.

Eastline’s reconstruction work breathed a new lease of life intoMoscow’s ‘infant’ airport – and no one at Domodedovo is taking their foot off the accelerator, for plans are now well under way to bring the airport into line with the most modern in Europe.

Its recently-announced ‘Building for the Future’ development programme represents an investment of around $500 million over the next five years and will result in the existing 120,000sqm passenger terminal being doubled in size. Other major projects include an upgrade tothe cargo terminal and the installation of a new baggage system with state-of-the-art security.

“Domodedovo’s outstanding growth is due largely to Eastline’s ongoing investment in the most sophisticated technology,” says Sergey Gorbunov, deputy chairman of Eastline. “We’re committed to making Domodedovo a leading international hub connecting the east and west.”

Building forthe future

Robin Stone reports on Moscow Domodedovo’s plans to complete its transformation into EasternEurope’s leading airport city.

34 DOMODEDOVO


The result is the largest and fastest-growing airport in Russia with thecountry’s most modern passenger terminal.

It will be the central hub of a much broader Eastline development, mirroring the so-called ‘aerotropolis’ concept that is already well established at the likes of Dubai and Hong Kong. Other Eastline companies operating around the airport complex handle cargo, inflightcatering and a business jet service.

When the expansion programme is completed, the Aerohotel gym plus a swimming pool will move to the terminal building. There is already a ‘personal cinema’ complex in operation, where film buffs can watch their chosen film on a large LCD TV and dolby-surround earphones.

For while Domodedovo is principally a transport hub – the needs of its passengers remain paramount – it is also aiming to position itself as a place where people can spend their free time, developing a far broader usage of the airport. The project includes business parks, retail outlets, vending machines, cafés, restaurants andsport facilities.

This year, the airport will open a ‘mini-hotel’ for transfer passengers as well as a trade and entertainment centre – the Domodedovo Plaza – including the cinema complex and roof-top café. Among other features of the development are logistic centres and a new educationaland training centre on the first floor of the terminal.

Key to the success of this vision is a modern, integrated transport system which ferries all airport users in and out of Moscowsmoothly and efficiently. The route is served by a dedicated highway and a non-stop Aeroexpress train linking the airport to the centre of thecapital. The service departs Paveletsky railway station every hour between7am and 10pm.

A unique project linking the passenger terminal to the airport railway station and the adjoining square has also been developed. The new interchange enables rail and air transfers to be operated under oneroof, improving passenger flow.

Express buses depart the airport every hour from 6am until 1am (everyhalf-hour at peak times), a 40-minute ride which terminates at Domodedovskaya metro. And last year Domodedovo also launched a new 24-hour bus service for travellers transferring between Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo.

The terminal has a special department for disabled travellers, employing skilled professionals to accompany disabled passengers duringtheir stay, and take care of all their transportation needs from the momentthey arrive until boarding the plane. There is also a 24-hour mother andchild facility for children under eight accompanied by a parent.

Religious beliefs are also catered for (an Orthodox chapel and a mosquewere opened in the terminal in 2001 and 2002 respectively), and thereare plans to open a museum within the airport showcasing Domodedovo’sachievements and history.

It’s a wide-ranging, imaginative programme which is transforming Domodedovo and is stealing a considerable march on Moscow’s other twoairports, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. Konstantin Tyurkin, head of international relations, says: “Moscow Domodedovo International Airportis number one in Russia, both in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. Itis the most advanced and comfortable airport in the country.”

The passenger figures would seem to support him, as the airport has achieved swift and steady growth in line with reconstruction. Almost 14 million passengers passed through Domodedovo last year, a

15.7% increase on 2004. And there seems little sign of any slow-down.During the first six months of 2006, passenger traffic was 12.5% up on thesame period in 2005.

As a result, Domodedovo is now ranked 14th in a list of the world’s most dynamically developing airports, and is ranked 88th overall according to the latest ACI figures (2005). Its growing importance to Russian aviation is reflected in the fact that it now carries a third of Russia’s total passengers. This year, as the terminal extension programme continues, and capacity rises proportionately, passenger traffic is forecast to reach 16.2m – a year-on-year increase of 16%. In 2010 it is projected to top 22 million, and by 2015 about 30mppa are expected to be using Moscow’s leading gateway.

Domodedovo already handles over half of the country’s entire cargo. Its cargo terminal is the largest in Moscow with a capacity of 800 tonnes per day, and is protected by a state-of the art security system. Indeed, Domodedovo led Russian aviation’s push towards improved security, introducing the country’s first domestic flight X-ray scanner capable of tracking plastic explosives and non-metal weapons, as well as drugs, chemicals or explosives that have been swallowed. It is also installing a voice-analysis system developed by the Israeli company Newesysco, which will be used in passenger security screeningat all customs and border control points.

The airport’s continuing growth, says Eastline’s Group director for government and public affairs, Anna Krasnova, is not restricted purely torising passenger and cargo figures.

“The challenge Domodedovo faces at the moment is far beyond a simple increase in capacity. It is much more complicated than that,” shesays. “Our task is to create an atmosphere and build facilities that will make our passengers feel as comfortable as possible while they arewaiting for their flights or just visiting Domodedovo in their spare time –they can watch a movie, go shopping in a mall, or simply relax at a caféon the airport roof with marvellous views of the airfield.

“We would also like to offer passengers and guests an opportunity tovisit exhibitions in Domodedovo. The airport, as a transportation hub whichlinks countries and peoples of different cultures, is the perfect place to setup this culture centre.

“All these projects are incorporated in the airport city concept that isbeing developed and implemented in Domodedovo."

35DOMODEDOVO

�


Formula forsuccessRitesh Gupta reports on ambitious plans to make Kuala Lumpur International Airport a ‘destinationin its own right’.

36 KUALA LUMPUR


37KUALA LUMPUR

Keen on making maximum use of Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s active land bank of 10,000 hectares, operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), is

focusing on making the airport a ‘destination in its own right’.Its plan centres around the creation of Gateway Park – a huge

new commercial and recreational area devoted to non-aeronauticalactivity – that MAHB believes will be unique in Malaysia and establish Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as a leading airport city.

Covering an area of 2,300 acres, Gateway Park will be dividedinto a number of different ‘zones’ that will include today’s FormulaOne racing circuit and a new Business Park, along with a host ofother facilities ranging from corporate bungalows and hotels to hypermarkets, shopping malls and an amusement park. It also hasplans for cinemas, a horse riding centre, a golf course, a small lakefor fishing and a shooting range.

KLIA already has one five-star hotel – the 440-room Pan PacificHotel opposite the main terminal building – and MAHB’s airport cityMasterplan calls for the addition of four more top-ranking hotels,the first of which is expected to be built within the next couple of years.

Travellers on a budget can today chose from either the ConcordeInn, operational since the airport’s 1998 inception, and an AirsideTransit Hotel located in the Satellite Building. A new budget hotelclose to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) is also in the pipeline.

MAHB’s ambitious plans to transform KLIA into an airport city are in line with its desire to earn more money from non-aeronautical sources, the organisation recently setting itself thetarget of making 50% of its revenue from non-aviation related activity by 2008.

MAHB’s commercial services division is currently involved in several major projects centering on retail space planning and product differentiation at major airports in the country.

For KLIA, the first initiative is a Retail Optimisation Plan whichaims to change the ambience and look and feel of the retail andF&B offering in the Satellite Building. The plan entails increasing

retail space from present 4,500sqm to 6,200sqm within one yearfrom 1 April 2007.

The idea is to convert vacant space into retail outlets and transform promotional areas into full-fledge outlets (retail and F&B).The other aspects are product placement reconfiguration to ensurethat the right products are on sale at the right location with the highest visibility going to items typically purchased on impulse.

Secondly, a retail optimisation study and retail facelift is being planned for KLIA’s Main Terminal Building (MTB) and Contact Pier (CP).

“The study will address space planning, product configurationand outlet size, mainly aimed at increasing commercial value andaddressing needs of landside passengers and customers, target income achievable – approximately $54 million over seven yearsfrom the present and target implementation by 2008,” says UmarBustamam, MAHB’s general manager of commercial services.

Thirdly, a 2,300sqm location has been identified outside theLCCT to develop a food court offering low-priced food and beverageoptions to budget airline passengers and customers.

The project is expected to be completed by the first quarter of2007 and will complement today’s commercial facilities in the terminal building which comprise two duty free outlets, six retail outlets and five F&B outlets.

Says Bustamam: “Projects in the pipeline include the construction and management of a standalone food court, more variety of retail products and services, plus technology-based services for passengers’ ease and convenience.”

The opening of the $30 million LCCT in March earlier this yearhas ensured that KLIA is better equipped to handle budget airlinetraffic, which now accounts for four million of the gateway’s 23.2 million passengers per annum. The complex has parking for30 aircraft and 72 check-in counters and a parking lot for up to 1,000 vehicles.

Today’s retail and F&B offering in the main passenger terminalcovers just 5% of the total terminal floor area, leaving huge room for expansion. �




40 DALLAS/FORT WORTH

With over 18,000 acres of land at its disposal, few gateways onthe planet have more potential to develop into an airport citythan Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW).

The airport’s core infrastructure of seven runways and five terminalscombined with 38 its airlines, workforce and assortment of support facilities, already ensure that it a ‘mini-city’ in its own right acting as aplace of commerce and culture.

But in Texas – where everything is big, including ambitions – it is striving for more and wants to develop into a true airport city that offers airport and city resources and services ‘under one big roof’.

“In short, DFW is not just an emerging airport city, it is the core of anemerging Dallas-Fort Worth ‘aerotropolis’,” says John Kasarda, Kenan-Flagler Business School, the University of North Carolina at ChapelHill. “Over the next ten years DFW will become a major airport city as thegateway effectively develops its 18,000 acres.

“Aerotropolises are corner-stoned by a muti-modal terminal or terminals containing a wide variety of commercial products and servicesplus a range of airport-linked businesses on airport property and immediately adjacent to it – hotels, office buildings, distribution facilitiesand merchandise marts. Moving out up to 15 miles from the airport city

Texas star

Becoming an airport city is high on the agenda of the world’s sixth busiest gateway, writes Brian Murnahan.

Picture courtesy of Corgan Associates/Craig Blackmon.


41DALLAS/FORT WORTH

along expressways and interstate highways are stings and clusters of business and logistics parks, hotel and entertainment complexes and associated residential developments which make up the greater aerotropolis.”

DFW, which is larger in area than New York’s Manhattan Island, is justminutes from the city centres of both Dallas and Fort Worth, which jointlyown it. Indeed, the gateway bound the two cities together in a rare jointventure 38 years ago.

“DFW works every day to improve the quality of air service out of NorthTexas with better facilities and greater selection, but it is also the responsibility of DFW to contribute to the economic vitality of the region,”says DFW’s CEO, Jeff Fegan.

“The airport supports 268,000 jobs and brings the region more than $14 billion annually. In our effort to continue to improve DFW, we’re working to generate not just better economic conditions for airlines, concessionaires and passengers but also the surrounding community.”

Inter-local agreements between DFW and surrounding cities allows forthe distribution of taxes collected on the airport with the greater community. “Inter-local agreements are not something for nothing. Ourneighbour cities support the DFW’s employees and concessionaires,” saysFegan. “These cities are in part located adjacent to DFW in an effort tomove a highly qualified workforce and supporting businesses closer to an employment focal point.”

“North Texas would have probably become an economic powerhouseeventually,” according to Dan Petty, president and CEO of the North TexasCommission. “But DFW accelerated the process and has proved to be ‘the’economic engine that drives this regional economy.”

DFW is constantly working to provide the best opportunities for business. The airport successfully sold the North Texas marketplace toCathay Pacific Cargo, bringing a market leading airline to DFW along withat least $8.5 million a year in economic impact. Cathay Pacific Cargo nowflies four weekly flights to DFW, with the addition of one flight coming tothe market in August.

Drilling for natural gas, developing first class hotel and leisure activi-ties as well as retail developments are on DFW’s menu of services bene-fiting the citizens and businesses of North Texas.

“DFW has sought non-airline revenue to supplement our budget sincethe airport opened in 1974,” admits Jan Collmer, DFW’s chairman of theBoard. “In May, DFW staff presented updated plans for a 600-acre parcelof land known as Passport Park where we anticipate we can bring in bothbig and small box stores in an upscale environment. This new venturewould provide DFW with more than just land lease revenue as weanticipate entering into a development deal where DFW can share the project’s success.”

The landscape at DFW has certainly changed over the past last yearwith the addition of the new International Terminal D, Grand Hyatt Hoteland Skylink automated people mover system as the gateway has diligentlyworked to upgrade its facilities to best serve nearly 60mppa.

And in the past four years, DFW has worked particularly hard to increaseits non-airline revenue with expanded land leases for warehousing,

office, logistic centres and, most recently, natural gas drilling and retail developments.

“DFW expects to sign a lucrative natural gas deal with Chesapeake Energy Corporation of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in September,” enthuses Kevin Cox, chief operating officer for DFW. “Uponsigning the contract, Chesapeake is expected to turn over its first paymentworth $181 million.”

The natural gas lease was bid at five times the minimum of $2,000 peracre for a one-time bonus of $181 million. Chesapeake and is partners willhave two years to begin drilling for natural gas and will pay DFW annuallya sum equal to 25% of their gross sales.

“DFW anticipates this new non-airline revenue source will become oneof our top four non-airline based sources of income,” says Cox. “The ini-tial payment will likely be used to help pay down some debt, capital development projects, and other investment opportunities. Chesapeakehas brought DFW a unique and valuable resource we plan to take full advantage of from day one.”

In addition, DFW is looking for other ways to leverage its land holdingsto improve the airport’s bottom line.

A restaurant plaza is expected to fill a void left five years ago after the 9-11 attacks, namely the availability of dining space outside of security. The new facility is expected to house flight information devices in addition to signage along the roadway indicating wait times at the restaurants. In addition, a 600-acre retail, light industrial and low-rise development is expected to be built on the airport’s southern edge.

“Passport Park will include an upscale 125 to 150 acre retail development with plans to have light commercial and low rise elementsadding to the already rich retail and business market along the south sideof DFW,” reveals Terrell. “The property would benefit the more than 50,000men and women who work on DFW every day as well as the residents ofour neighbouring communities. The first tenants are expected to be in placewithin three years.”

DFW has long been home to hotels and a golf course, but recent developments have added unique architectural beauty and culture. An impressive 298-room Grand Hyatt Hotel with rooftop pool and spa and a$6 million art programme that opened in July 2005 have made DFW a cultural destination.

“Culture is unique to every community and at DFW we want to be theworld’s front door to Texas,” comments Joe Lopano, executive vice president of marketing and terminal management. “With the additionof Terminal D, DFW incorporated 33 pieces of original art in the design of the terminal. In addition, DFW has worked with the Nasher Sculpture Museum in Dallas to display four stunning sculptures at the new terminal. DFW is now proud to give tours of our art and we expect to begin rotating in new art to display throughout the airport.”

DFW, like a city, provides the basic essentials including law enforcement, public works facilities, utilities and other central services,paid each year out of the airport’s $632 million budget. Of that $632 million, more than $400 million annually are collected from sourcesother than landing fees. �



43MUNICH

Drivers approaching Munich from the north at night think they’vealready reached the city limits when they first see the mini-metropolis glow cast by Munich Airport.

Spread out over a lush and verdant 1,600 hectares and 38 kilometresnortheast of downtown Munich, Munich Airport boasts a size and economicimportance that belies its youth.

Just 14 years after the Munich Airport operator, FMG, relocated fromits Riem location close to downtown Munich to its new greenfield site, Munich Airport has gone from being a relatively small city airport to a largeairport city. Since opening in May 1992, Munich Airport has doubled itspassenger levels and tripled its cargo traffic to become Germany’s secondbiggest international gateway and Europe’s seventh busiest hub airport.With over 30 million passengers expected for the first time in the airport’shistory in 2006, and then 56mppa by 2020, Munich is one of the fastestgrowing hubs in Europe.

But it isn’t size alone that matters, says CEO, Dr Michael Kerkloh: "Ourgoal is to become the most attractive and most efficient hub in Europe by2010 – something we’re well on the way to achieving as we develop bothMunich’s airside and landside offerings into an airport city that’s got everything from its own microbrewery to a full-service hospital."

Munich Airport also features a full-service grocery store and two bakeries, over 215 retail outlets, 55 restaurants, bars and cafes, branches of local, national and travel banks, a post office, dry cleaning services and an internet café – not to mention a swimming pooland spa, hairdresser, shoe-repair shop and multi-denominational chapel too.

It’s this kind of diversity that makes this airport city popular with passengers. In April 2006, Munich picked up the ‘Best Airport in Europe’ award for the second year running and was chosen third best worldwide in the Skytrax ‘Airport Awards 2006’ survey of over seven mil-lion passengers from around the world.

With an ideal location at the heart of the expanded European Unionand serving one of Germany’s most dynamic cities and states – Munichand Bavaria – the gateway has developed into a modern and urbane smalltown with the accoutrement of an international capital.

It’s the unique relationship with its hub partner, Lufthansa, that Munichcan thank for its rapid transformation into such a cosmopolitan airport. Realising early on the benefits that closer cooperation would bring,Munich Airport and Lufthansa decided in the late 1990s to jointly plan,build, finance and operate a new hub terminal.

BavarianbrillianceOffering passengers everything from a microbrewery to the kitchen sink, Erica Gingerich describeshow Munich has grown from a city airport to an airport city.



45MUNICH

This airport-airline ‘marriage’ has been a successful one so far. When itopened in June 2003, Terminal 2 doubled Munich’s then-existing capacity to over 50 million passengers annually, and rounded out its service spectrum to include a facility tailor-made to the needs of transferring passengers.

Terminal 2 is the latest infrastructural addition to the Munich airport city,but as Kerkloh likes to emphasise, “It’s not just the individual elements thatmake Munich such a dynamic airport city – it’s the way these elements worktogether as they would in a ‘real’ city.”

As the Tom Hanks character (based on a real passenger stranded in tran-sit at Paris CDG) in the Steven Spielberg film, ‘The Terminal’, might have discovered had he landed (and been stranded) in Bavaria, Munich Airport hasjust about everything but the kitchen sink. And even access to that could probably be arranged by befriending the cook at one of the airport’s numerous restaurants, bars and cafes.

Despite the 30 million-plus passengers annually and the 25,000 employees working on the airport campus, the Munich airport city feels amazingly uncrowded. The spacious and airy atmosphere is deliberate, as theoriginal greenfield site facility opened in 1992 was built to blend in as harmoniously as possible with the surrounding countryside. Terminal 1 wasbuilt to hug rather than dominate the landscape, thus earning it the monikerof ‘the white airport in the country’.

It was, however, also designed and constructed in the era before airportoperators got wise to the enormous revenue potential of non-aviation offerings. So, while the slender, modular pier construction got passengersfrom check-in to their gate in a jiffy, Terminal 1 and the adjoining Central Areadidn’t leave much room at all for retail or restaurants.

That changed starting in 1999 with the complete remodelling of the Central Area to add more shops, restaurants and service areas. Nowadays, Terminal 1, which in 2004 also got a massive facelift to update its retail andrestaurant outlets, together with the Central Area offers around 60 shops andeateries/cafes.

Nevertheless, it was still missing a ‘city centre’ back then – a problemthat was remedied by the opening of the Munich Airport Centre (MAC) in theautumn of the same year. A huge, open-air forum covered with a 22,000sqmglass and high-tech polymer roof, the MAC is an enormous venue for concerts,and events that include an annual traditional Christmas market

replete with its own ice-skating rink in the 10,000sqm central forum. TheMAC is also the home of the world’s first airport microbrewery and outdoor‘biergarten’, Airbräu (literally, ‘air brew’), and its six-level, 31,000sqm areaalso houses offices, a consortium of independent medical practices (includ-ing a dentist, one of Germany’s best-equipped radiology clinics, a physio-therapist, an opthamologist and a laser-eye surgery centre) and Municon, a full-service conference centre.

With 28 conferencing rooms, Municon can accommodate a total of 554guests, depending on seating configuration, and allows companies to avoidcostly airport/conference to city centre taxi transfers with its convenient ‘fly-meet-fly’ concept.

The five-star Kempinski Airport Hotel, which is literally steps away from theTerminal 2 arrivals area and a short walk from Terminal 1, has 343 roomsand 46 suites, and rounds out the airport’s conferencing facilities with 30conference and banquet rooms, a business centre with analogue, digital andwireless network connectivity, two main bars and two restaurants as well aspool/spa and fitness centre.

Kerkloh admits, though, that the majority of people coming to an airportaren’t there primarily to shop, go out to eat or enjoy leisure activities– they’re at an airport because they need to fly somewhere.

"That’s why airports – including Munich – have to remain competitivetransport centres first and foremost," says Kerkloh. While he thinks an airport city is vital to the success of the airport of the 21st century, and although airport cities might one day become viable entities in and of themselves once they reach a certain size, he believes their existence is today still very much tied to the success of the airport as an aviation facility.

"If the airport operator doesn’t take necessary steps such as infrastructural expansion – for example, our plans for a third runway to avoid capacity bottlenecks in the near future – to ensure that airlines and passengers are actually using its airport, then the airport city will also suffer," notes Kerkloh.

That said, Kerkloh is confident that Munich Airport’s transition from a cityairport to an airport city is an example of how the ‘airport city’ has already begun to redefine the purpose and function of airports and, in a largercontext, the purpose of airports as part of a rapidly changing aviation industry overall. �

Pictures courtesy of Munich Airport.


46 ATLANTA

With a workforce of 55,000, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the biggest single-site employer in thesouth-eastern USA. And its 85.9 million passengers and

981,000 aircraft movements last year made it the world’s busiest airport– a title it hopes to win again for 2006.

Atlanta’s workforce and its activities are already city-sized. Last year itspayroll totalled $2.4 billion and its total regional economic impact was $18.7 billion, and the airport is now four years into a $6 billion-plus development programme that, when completed by 2012,not only will increase its capacity but will help Atlanta to blossom into a trueairport city.

Meanwhile, the seven communities surrounding the gateway havelaunched a variety of commercial, residential and recreational develop-ment projects that will tie them more strongly to the airport economically,while also supporting its growth as an urban centre.

Hartsfield-Jackson expects its passenger figures to grow to more than 125mppa by 2020, says Ben DeCosta, Hartsfield-Jackson’saviation general manager, and eventually it could grow to serve up to155mppa. To ensure the airport can handle the growth, the city of Atlanta, which owns and operates it, launched a ten-year developmentplan in 2002.

The plan’s first major construction project, a newly completed 9,000ft southern runway that cost over $1.1 billion, is the airport’s fifth and probably the last that will be built on the site, according to DeCosta.

Runway 10-28 will increase Atlanta’s hourly aircraft movement ca-pacity by 50% from 90 to 135. Used initially for landings, it has already be-come important in minimising bad-weather delays “along the easternseaboard” of the USA, says DeCosta. The runway eventually will handletake-offs too, and already has increased the airport’s movement rate attimes to over 120 aircraft an hour.

The gateway has also begun another $1 billion project – the construction of a new international terminal, named after former Atlantamayor Maynard H Jackson Jr, located east of the existing 28-gate international Concourse E on land formerly occupied by maintenance buildings. The airport has already spent $200 million on razing these buildings and moving 1.5 million cubic yards of earth to build the site up40ft to the same level as the existing taxiways.

Due for completion by 2011, the environmentally friendly new terminalwill have 14 gates, 10 of them international gates for widebody aircraft. Theproject also includes construction of a 2,000-space parking structure, aswell as new roadways to connect the terminal directly to the nearby highway to the east.

Growth after 2020 will require additional terminal capacity. Consequently, Atlanta is now planning southern terminal concourses, thatwill be connected to the main terminal by an underground people-mover.The first phase would have 15-30 gates, says DeCosta. Since all the southern concourses’ passengers would obtain access via the main terminal, this would then need to be enlarged and its roadway access expanded.

Chris Kjelgaard reports on the airport city development plans of the world’s busiest gateway.

Thinking bigapc mag august MAIN:Layout 1 6/11/07 16:45 Page 46

47ATLANTA

Two important on-airport projects involve Hartsfield-Jackson’s northernrunway-taxiway complex. One, beginning this September, is the $92 mil-lion refurbishment of Runway 8R-26L and its associated taxiways. Thesecond, due for completion within the next six months, is the $46 million construction of a new ‘end-around’ taxiway to allow aircraft arriving on thelanding runway 8L-26R to taxi to the midfield terminal ramps without having to cross the take-off runway.

Both the end-around taxiway and the new southern runway are particularly important in terms of improving environmental quality for Hartsfield-Jackson and its surrounds, says Tom Nissalke, the airport’s director of environmental services.

“It’s all about delay reduction,” he explains, the fewer ground-hold delays that arriving and departing aircraft face, the less fuel their enginesburn idling. “We’re very much focusing on air quality, because Atlanta hasestablished maximum allowable concentrations of both ozone and particulate matter.”

Atlanta has also embarked upon two other big projects. One, nearlycompleted and involving the installation of nearly four miles of baggageconveyor belts, is the $170 million construction of two automated, in-linescreening facilities for checked baggage under the main terminal building.These will allow passengers to check in their luggage at airline ticket deskswithout having to drag it to screening areas, providing more space on themain terminal floor by removing existing checked-baggage screening areas.

Second is the $480 million construction of a consolidated rental car facility (called CONRAC), which will hold all ten car rental agencies serv-ing the airport and provide about 9,000 rental car parking spaces.

CONRAC will be connected to the gateway’s main terminal by an elevated people-mover that will feature an intermediate stop at the Geor-gia International Convention Center, located nearby in the city of CollegePark.

College Park plans to build four hotels, office complexes and restaurants to serve the convention centre, and CONRAC will serve themas well as the airport. Plans are afoot also to expand the venerable CollegePark golf course and build a golf-cart bridge to provide easy access fromthe hotels to the course.

An exciting opportunity for airport city development lies to the east ofHartsfield-Jackson in the community of Mountain View, where the airport purchased residential land years ago and demolished the housing

for noise mitigation reasons.Although much roadway construction would be needed to give the site

access to the airport and major highways, planning manager, ShelleyLamar, says plans call for the development of an office, warehousing andretail centre that also will feature ‘white tablecloth’ restaurants and 9,000new off-airport parking spaces for airport users.

Additionally, she says, if plans mature for a regional railway line linking Atlanta with Macon – and potentially even with Hilton Head in South Carolina – it could go through the Mountain View development. Atlanta hopes to develop an intermodal transport hub there to connect rail, highways and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Author-ity (MARTA) bus network directly by road to the new international terminal – similar to the existing line connecting the main terminal withdowntown Atlanta.

The gateway has far-sightedly reserved a right of way for an automatedpeople-mover line from Mountain View to the international terminal, though Lamar concedes traffic demand would need to be high to build it,due to the cost.

Other communities surrounding Hartsfield-Jackson are also pursuing airport-related developments. Four miles from the airport, the city of East Point has built warehousing and is now in the second phase of developing a big retail centre that features a huge sports facility. South of the airport, College Park and Clayton County aremaking better use of their proximity to it by re-zoning land for warehous-ing and commercial activities.

North of the airport, the city of Forest Park is planning extensive refurbishment of its state farmers’ market, which is presently open-air.Forest Park wants to provide frequent transport links between the airportand a revitalised farmers’ market to make it a major attraction for passengers.

Nearby, the attractive old community of Hapeville, whose restaurantshave long been frequented by airport employees, is looking at ways toboost airport-related growth. In pace with Hartsfield-Jackson growth, residential development has been rapid recently in all the communitiessurrounding it, and two major hospitals located a few minutes’ drive fromthe airport also are expanding accordingly.

Given the fast pace of on and off-airport development, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson looks set to become even more economically im- �



49EXHIBITION GUIDE


A45

A50

A46

A51

A47

A52

A48

A53

A49

A54

A34A35

A40

A36

A41

A37

A42

A38

A43

A39

A44

C20C21

C27

C22

C28 C26

50 FLOORPLAN

Floo

rpla

nFl

oorp

lan

C5 & C6 Hangzhou XiaoshanC7 & C8 Airport Authority Hong KongC20-C22 & C26-C28 Beijing Capital Airports

Holding Company, Tianjin Binhai International Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport,Wuhan Tianhe International Airport

A4 & A13 KingsmenA5 & A14 Airport WorldA 9 Internet Café SponsorA17 Ove ArupA24 Dallas/Fort WorthA25 & A33 SSPA29 ThyssenKrupp Airport SystemsA30 & A31 Ingersoll RandA32 Nuance-WatsonA34 Cafe de Coral Fast Food LtdA35 LaRossaA36 NECA37 & A38 Travelex

This floorplan and exhibitor list may be subject to change


C3

C11

A18

A26

A19

A27

A20

A28

A21

A29

A22

A30

A23

A31

A24

A32

A25

A33

A1

A10

A2

A11

A3A4

A13

A5

A14

A8

A17

A9

C2C5C6C7C8

A39 Plaza Premium LoungeA41 MeinhardtA42 Asian Aerospace 2007A43 Chu Kong Passenger Transport Co LtdA44 International Currency ExchangeA45 & A50 JCDecaux Pearl & DeanA46 Kwoon Chung Bus HoldingsA47 Mott Connell LtdA48 GE SecurityA49 TurboJetA51 Landrum & BrownA52 BAA InternationalA53 & A54 Worldwide Flight Services

ge

51FLOORPLAN

September 11 2006

Gala Dinner, Reception& Entertainment

East Meets West at AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong International Airport

All delegates and partners are invited to attendfrom 6pm onwards

September 13 2006

Airport & SkyCity Tour

Guided tour around Hong Kong International Airport


52 EXHIBITORS

C5 & C6Hangzhou Xiaoshan International AirportXu Xin [email protected]+86 0571 8666 1123Hangzhou Xiaoshan International AirportHangzhouCHINA

C7 & C8Airport Authority Hong KongHenry [email protected]+852 2183 30351 Cheong Yip RoadHong Kong International AirportLantauHONG KONG

C20 –C22 & C26 –C28Capital Airports HoldingPeng [email protected]+8610 6456 3947President’s Office Capital Airports Holding CompanyBeijing International Airport Chaoyang District Beijing 100621CHINA

A5 & A14Airport WorldJonathan [email protected]+ 44 208 831 7563Sovereign House26/30 London RoadTwickenham, MiddlesexTW1 3RWUNITED KINGDOM

A17Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong LtdGrant [email protected]+852 2268 3518Level 5, Festival Walk80 Tat Chee AvenueKowloon Tong, KowloonHONG KONG

A24Dallas/Fort Worth International AirportDoug [email protected]+972 574 8063Commercial DevelopmentP.O. Box 619428DFW Airport, Texas 75261USA

A25 & A33Select Service Partner Asia PacificAntonio [email protected]+852 2261 08565N029 Level 5Passenger Terminal BuildingHong Kong International AirportLantau HONG KONG

A29ThyssenKrupp Airport SystemsJulie [email protected]+86 76 0333 9682Chengnan 5 Road, South DistrictZhongshan 528455Guangdong Providence CHINA

A30 & A31Ingersoll RandJun [email protected]+ 86 21 5410 1110Room 801-802, Zhao Feng PlazaNo 1027 Changning RoadShanghai, 20050CHINA

A32Nuance-Watson (HK) LtdAlessandra [email protected]+ 852 2870 6798Suite 601-604, One Citygate20 Tat Tung Road, Tung ChungLantau, HONG KONGEx

hibi

tors

Exhi

bito

rs


53EXHIBITORS

A34Cafe de Coral GroupMandy [email protected]+ 852 2693 6218No 5 –13, Wo Shui StreetFo Tan, ShatingHONG KONG

A35La RossaViolet Lam [email protected]+852 2238 112923/F China Merchants Tower Shun Tak Centre 168 Connaught Road CentralSheung Wan HONG KONG

A36NECJoanna [email protected]+ 852 2733 5546NEC Hong Kong Limited 25th Floor, The Metropolis Tower, Hunghom Kowloon HONG KONG

A37 & A38Travelex plcClaudia [email protected]+ 852 2853 9888Unit 2210-2218, Level 22, Tower 1Millennium City 1388 Kwun Tong Road, Kwun TongKowloon HONG KONG

A39Plaza Premium LoungeLinda [email protected]+ 852 3150 88106T512 Passenger Terminal BuildingHong Kong International AirportLantau HONG KONG

A41Meinhardt AviationPrudence [email protected]+ 852 2859 56614/F, Wah Ming Centre421 Queen's Road WestHONG KONG

A42Asian Aerospace 2007Annie Ma [email protected]+852 2965 1680Unit 3011, 30/F, The Center99 Queen's Road CentralHONG KONG

A43Chu Kong PassengerTransport Co., Ltd.Chen Hua [email protected]+852 28591593 10/F Chu Kong Shipping Tower 143 Connaught Road Central HONG KONG

A44International CurrencyExchangeVictor [email protected]+ 6017 688 98845 Jalan Meranti SD 13/7 Bandar SriDamansargKuala Lumpur, 52200MALAYSIA

A45 & A50JCDecaux Pearl & DeanTeresa [email protected]+852 2862 723022/F Admiralty Centre, Tower 218 Harcourt RoadHONG KONG

A46Kwoon Chung Bus HoldingsTiffany [email protected]+852 3193-93333/F No. 8 Chong Fu RoadChai WanHONG KONG

A47Mott Connell LimitedDavid [email protected]+852 2828575740th Floor, Hopewell Centre183 Queens Road EastWanchaiHONG KONG

A48GE SecurityVicki [email protected]+86 21 2307 1888Homeland Protection AsiaNo.2 Building,1528 XinZha RoadShanghai 200040CHINA

A49TurboJETEva [email protected]+852 23070880 83, Hing Wah Street WestLai Chi KokKowloonHONG KONG

A51Landrum & Brown Worldwide ServicesElizabeth [email protected]+852 9188 4225PO Box 5931, General Post Office2, Connaught Place, Central DistrictHONG KONG

A52BAA InternationalClive [email protected]+44 12 9350 5541London Gatwick AirportGatwickRH6 0NPUNITED KINGDOM

A53 & A54Worldwide Flight ServicesDebbie [email protected]+852 2985 0138Worldwide House 1501A19 Des Voeux RoadCentral DistrictHONG KONG

All exhibitor details correct at the time of going to press


54 SPONSORS AND EVENTS

would like to thank the following companies that made this event possible:

&

ppllaattiinnuumm ssppoonnssoorrss

host official airlinevenue

gold sponsors

bronze sponsor

wweellccoommee rreecceeppttiioonn hhoossttss

silver sponsors

media sponsors

ppllaattiinnuumm ggaallaa ddiinnnneerr ssppoonnssoorrss

ggoolldd ggaallaa ddiinnnneerr ssppoonnssoorrss

organiser

Our next event: Frankfurt, Germany – April 25-26, 2007

Alex KirbySponsorship EnquiriesManaging DirectorPhone: +44 (0) 20 8831 [email protected]

Andrew HazellSponsorship/Exhibition EnquiriesConference & Exhibition ManagerPhone: +44 (0) 20 8831 [email protected]

Melissa Hall General/Delegate EnquiriesMarketing ExecutivePhone: +44 (0) 20 8831 [email protected]

Airport CitiesAirport CitiesInternational Gateways To Regional Economic Development

for more info visit: www.airportconference.com


Among the eagerly awaited new facilities at the prestigious new SkyPlaza terminal will be a range of bars and restaurants created by SSP. However, SSP’s relationship with the Hong Kong

Airport Authority was forged long before plans for the SkyPlaza development began.

When the company started trading at Hong Kong International Airportin 1998, it had just three units. Over the years, this number has risen, and with the opening of SkyPlaza, it will operate 24. Daren Lau, Managing Director of SSP’s Asia Pacific region says that SSP’s unrivalled knowledge of the airport gained over many years was instrumental in helping it to win the new contracts at SkyPlaza. ‘Our experience in the main terminals meant that we knew what would work forpassengers, and how we could run a profitable operation at the new development.’

SkyPlaza required concepts that set it apart and catered for a wide variety of demands – from passengers as well as local visitors. However the solid on-going relationship between Airport Authority Hong Kong and SSP gave the Authority the confidence in SSP’s ability to deliver the quality and creativity demanded at such a high profile project. Ms Eva Tsang, General Manager of Retail and Advertising Business at Airport Authority Hong Kong commented: ‘We have had a long and successful partnership with SSP, and we were confident that it would beable to continue to meet our exacting standards at SkyPlaza. We were alsoimpressed with the originality of the concepts they proposed.’

Daren shares Ms Tsang’s belief that the bars and restaurants chosen forSkyPlaza will be a hit with visitors. ‘We have a strong blend of international

brands such as a Burger King and Famous Famiglia, along with newly created concepts such as our Vietnamese restaurant Green Cottage and our dumpling outlet Tian Xia. There is something to suit all tastes.’

As the business matures, growth is a primary objective, and Daren’s teamin Hong Kong is well qualified to meet this challenge. ‘We have assembledan impressive management group that is ideally suited to achieve our cur-rent objectives. Our marketing manager, Thomas Lui, for example, hasmuch experience in marketing to increase penetration, and will play a keyrole in driving our business forward over the coming months.’

But skills and knowledge are not just important at management level, asDaren explains: ‘All our employees are ambassadors for the airport as wellas for SSP. They serve food, but they also help passengers by other taskssuch as finding their way to the gates. They also know how to deal with customers who may find themselves in stressful situations such as whenfacing delays, and are able to manage the complexities of airport life suchas working in many languages or dealing with foreign currency. When working on an ambitious project like SkyPlaza, the grand scheme is important. But the smaller details are also equally important.’

SSP all set forSkyPlazaFood and beverage specialist SSP outlines its plans for Hong Kong’s SkyPlaza and explains thereasons why it was chosen to help turn the vision for Sky City into a reality

For more information contact: Daren Lau, Managing Director, SSP Asia Pacific Tel: +852 2136 0691

Tian Xia is a new dumpling concept that will feature at Hong Kong’s SkyPlaza terminal



Documents

GAC-2006-01