The terminal is very spacious and bright.

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There is a huge square outside the entrance with a large canopy.

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Terminal 2

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Parking & Control Tower

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Airplanes from the observation deck (2 euros)

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From the gate : notice the smaller aircraft parked on the tarmac. Yet even more smaller aircraft are parked beyond to the left.

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Aerial View

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Great terminal and nice pictures.

Looks cold and empty

It seems so lifeless, so sterile. The dark sculpture hanging in the Lufthansa terminal reminds me of a dinasaurs' skeleton. This place needs color, plants, trees...PEOPLE.

Looks to spacious and bright to me.

But this airport is also cool, it has a maglev connection with the centre of Munich, or am I wrong?

Yes, you are wrong. But the maglev connection to the city center is planned and will hopefully be realized soon.

Munich airport is amazing (I was there in Aug. 2004), although not as large as major hubs. The interior design and detailing is very sophisticated.

Here's a great overview pic of Munich FJS Airport courtesy Airliners.net:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/812829/L/

Terminal 1 is on the right, Terminal 2 on the left. Enjoy! :cheers:

Well Munich airport was recently voted the 4th best airport in the world aswell as the best airport in europe on the official Skytrax poll, those are two very good accolades to achieve !! Have a look at www.airlinequality.com

very impressive!

It seems so lifeless, so sterile. The dark sculpture hanging in the Lufthansa terminal reminds me of a dinasaurs' skeleton. This place needs color, plants, trees...PEOPLE.

The sculpture, sponsored by local carmaker BMW, is to symbolize the sheer precision of BMW steering even at autobahn speeds!

And the thinking behind the all-white interior is that enough color will be added by the people using the terminal, while the building itself stays in the background, so to speak, and just provides clarity of wayfinding.

I don't like the new terminal at all.

Its cold, sterile and unimpressive. Looks like an ordinary trade fair exhibitian hall. There is nothing of the charme of a great world airport. Alone the floor is boring as it gets.

And the thinking behind the all-white interior is that enough color will be added by the people using the terminal, while the building itself stays in the background, so to speak, and just provides clarity of wayfinding.

:ohno:

It´s just the public check-in area that looks so sterile, the transit area is much nicer...

I like how they've got security there carrying machine guns strapped to their backs. It makes me feel very safe... :) :) :) :)

Great!!! I always like to look at your trip reports!!!

There is a Transrapid exhibition at Munich Airport to advertise its plans to build a maglev link :

http://www.globalphotos.org/munich/20050423/DSCN8857.jpg

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http://www.toytownmunich.com/wiki/Transrapid_Airport_Link

Plans are now underway to build a high speed train link between Munich central station and Munich airport. This magnetic levitation "flying train" will travel the 37 km journey in just 10 minutes reaching a top speed of 500 km/h (310 mph). The first trains are scheduled to run in 2009 with a frequency of every 10 minutes. This will make getting to the airport an absolute dream. It's not certain, however, that the project will actually go ahead. The estimated cost of the Transrapid link is a massive €1.6 billion. Of course many people think the money could be better spent elsewhere.

I like it a lot. It's bright, simple and modern, the way airports should be :)

I went through it last year and was just great :) Nice experience.

I like how they've got security there carrying machine guns strapped to their backs. It makes me feel very safe... :) :) :) :)

Those are BGS (federal border protection) officers. You can see them at German borders, train stations and airports. They can be quite heavily armed in contrast to your ordinary police officer.

I don't think maglev is a very good idea for Munich airport. Building a high-speed conventional rail line sounds much more viable...just look at how "successful" Shanghai's maglev is, even with prices adjusted down to better fit the price levels in the city. I don't think Shanghai's line even wants to admit how troublesome it is to finance the railway.

I have a stronger faith in Maglev as a long-distance mode of transportation.

very nice terminuses

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/asiaglobe/scans/scan0024.jpg

Overall it's probably a very good and functional building, but in terms of 'feel' I prefer terminals that aren't as shiny and sterile...... I like Singapore for example...... also a lot of glass and yet a lot colours, carpets as well as granite, green glass windows. It just doesn't feel cold - rather warm and inviting to stay. Don't think that's the case with Munich's Terminal 2.

If only more European airports were modern, clean and spacious like Munich.

I guess. You need to go to Asia to find these traits in Airports. KL, Hongkong, Singapore, and soon Bangkok, Bejing, Shanghai, and a whole bunch of other airports are building like crazy. Much more spacious than Munich could ever be....

INTERVIEW: Munich Airport May Extend Terminal, Eyes DFS
December 21, 2005
By George Frey

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Munich Airport is facing building a costly extension to its second terminal to account for new European Union security measures, a move which would also hit German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA.XE), the airport's Chief Executive said.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Michael Kerkloh also said the airport is interested in buying a stake in German air traffic controller Deutsche Flug Sicherung.

Kerkloh said Munich airport, which is Germany's second biggest by passenger traffic after Frankfurt, would likely start a EUR60 million extension to Terminal 2 next year, unless the E.U. agrees to reduce the number of countries from which passengers must undergo increased security checks. Lufthansa would bear around 40% of these costs.

The E.U. brought in new regulations for passengers flying from non-E.U. countries in the middle of this year, under which security arrangements must be segregated from those for passengers flying within the E.U. The move was in response to recent terrorist atrocities such as the 9/11 attacks on the U.S..

"E.U. regulations say we have to separate 'non-clean' passengers from E.U. passengers," Kerkloh said. "Non-clean countries include the U.S., Canada, Japan, Israel and Singapore in the eyes of the E.U.; although we regard these countries as having a high standard of security," he said.

The segregation would mean Munich airport building a new sixth floor on top of the existing terminal two, plus extending connecting bridges to gates. However, the airport isn't pleased with having to make the extension only three years after the terminal was built.

The E.U. is still discussing the new security arrangements with some non-E.U. countries and Kerkloh hopes that will result in a shorter list of passengers who must be segregated.

"I hope we can avoid this investment," Kerkloh said. "It depends on E.U.-U.S. reciprocal agreements. If the E.U. could accept security standards for U.S. passengers, for example, we might not have to build this."

The view is shared by Lufthansa. Spokesman Michael Goentgens told Dow Jones Newswires that while the airline appreciated the need for strong security, the E.U. could regard more countries as "clean," to allow for greater efficiency and reduced costs at airports.

Kerkloh said Munich Airport has interim measures in place to satisfy the E.U. regulations which took effect in mid-2005, but the facilities are too small and affect passenger traffic both in terms of flight transfers and movement about the airport.

Munich has flight connection times around 30 minutes, one of the fastest in Europe, but the new security measures could jeopardize that as the airport gets busier. Also, Kerkloh said the new security measures are hurting revenues generated from retail businesses because the flow of passengers is curbed.

"It's taking passengers more time and they're not spending in the terminals like they should be," he said.

The airport should see 28.5 million passengers in 2005, a 6.5% increase over last year.

Kerkloh said the airport might be able to change some things around, like the flight plan, to keep to the famously low transfer times. "There may also be other solutions," he said.

Bettina Rittberger, a Lufthansa spokeswoman in Munich said the airline was also starting to discuss how to keep the 30 minute connection times, should the added security measures further drain the airport's efficiency. She said the airline was still in the discussion stages regarding the matter, and couldn't comment further.

Kerkloh said the airport was also "exploring the options" of buying a stake in Deutsche Flug Sicherung, the government-run organization responsible for Germany's air traffic controlling.

The German government wants to privatize 74.9% of the organization in 2006. German companies including Lufthansa, travel and shipping company TUI AG (TUI.XE) and airport operator Fraport AG (FRA.XE) have expressed interest in acquiring a stake in the air traffic control provider, and talk has been swirling that a number of interested companies could form a consortium to buy the stake.

Kerkloh said he couldn't say what he thought the 74.9% stake might be worth, or how a possible consortium of owners might function.

He said he didn't think it would be a problem for Munich to acquire a piece of DFS, although 51% of Munich airport is still owned by the state of Bavaria, with the city of Munich and the German federal government jointly holding the rest.

If only more European airports were modern, clean and spacious like Munich.

There are quite a few modern spacious airports and terminals in Europe. Frankfurt Terminal 2, London Stansted (and the new Terminal 5 will be amazing), Madrid, even Barcelona's older terminal is very spacious for it's age. There are plenty more, but I can't list them all.

Year, there are some cramped terminals as well, Heathrow's current terminals, although after T5 opens, terminals 1 & 2 are scheduled for demolishion and replacment.

As for this Munich Terminal, I really love it. What I also like are the outdoor area's which are usually neglected at airports.

Murphy Jahn's roof really stands out..................

The Top 10 Airports in the world for 2008 :

2008 AIRPORT 2007

1 Hong Kong 1
2 Singapore Changi 2
3 Seoul Incheon 2
4 Kuala Lumpur KLIA 5
5 Munich 4
6 Kansai 9
7 Copenhagen 11
8 Zurich 6
9 Helsinki 12
10 Cape Town 13

"the traveller's choice"
Source: http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards_2008/Airport2008.htm

The nicest airport I've ever been to (2004). Very nice.

Thank you for the info, it's a very nice airport!

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WORLD'S TOP 10 AIRPORTS
The Top 10 Airports in the world for 2009 :
LONDON - 9th June 2009 : Incheon International Airport (Seoul, S Korea) has been named World's Best Airport for 2009, in the World Airport Survey results published by Skytrax.

The most prolific World's Best Airport winner in recent years, Hong Kong International Airport, was pipped into 2nd place by Incheon International, with Singapore Changi Airport ranking 3rd best in the world, according to the latest passenger satisfaction rankings. Skytrax reported that the final winning margins between these top 3 positions was the smallest ever known for such a large global project, and at one stage it looked possible there might be a dead-heat result between these top three airports.

1 Incheon International Airport
2 Hong Kong International Airport
3 Singapore Changi
4 Zurich
5 Munich
6 Kansai
7 Kuala Lumpur
8 Amsterdam
9 Centrair Nagoya
10 Auckland

Source: http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards_2009/Airport2009.htm

Munich International Airport
by Peter Gutierrez
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petergutierrez/2477525209/

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Source : http://www.pbase.com/toptag/muc2&page=all

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Munich Airport handled 2.84 million passengers in May, down by -9.9% on May last year.

http://www.moodiereport.com/images/Munich_Airport_Center_01.jpg

The number of international passengers was 2.04 million, down -11.7% while domestic traffic fell -5.1% to 794,845. Aircraft movements were down by -8.5% year-on-year to 35,229 in the month.

In the period from January to May, total passenger traffic hit 12.5 million, down by -9.4% on the first five months of 2008. International traffic dipped by -9.25 to 8.7 million in the period, while domestic traffic fell -9.9% to 3.7 million.

Munich Airport handled 35.4 million passengers in 2008, up by +2% on 2007.
Source: The Moodie Report

Munich-based architects K+P win general planning tendering process for the expansion of Munich Airport's Terminal 2 baggage satellite facility.

Due to this growth, the Munich Airport operating company, FMG, is now in the process of planning infrastructure expansion in order to accommodate the forecasted 56 million passengers who will be using Munich Airport by 2020. Together with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, FMG launched an international tendering process for general planning in October 2006. Terminal 2 is a 60 / 40 joint venture between FMG and Lufthansa and was designed by Koch + Partner. Since Terminal 2 went into operation in 2003, it has almost reached the limits of its total capacity of around 25 million passengers annually.

Five professional, globally active airport planners qualified for the tender. After an anonymous, multi-stage tendering procedure that lasted more than a year, K+P has won the tendering process and has now been commissioned to complete one preliminary design for the expansion of the Terminal 2 satellite.

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Source: Koch + Partner Architects

New long haul connections in 2010/11:

Lufthansa
Miami (3 x week)
Tehran (4 x week)
Tashkent in Uzbekistan (3 x week)

Singapore Airlines
Singapore (5 x week)

All Nippon
Tokyo (7 x week)

Continental Airlines
New York Newark (7 x week)


Stable long-haul traffic bolsters Munich Airport's hub function

[...]

Passenger demand showed differing trends in the various traffic segments, with the domestic and European segments incurring decreases of 6.5 and 5.9 percent, respectively, while demand was largely stable in the intercontinental segment, where the 4.6 million passengers flying to long-haul destinations kept the performance in this area at the same high level as in 2008. The Asian routes actually posted gains, with total traffic up by over 6 percent.

In the coming year the attractive range of long-haul routes served from Munich will continue to expand, mainly through new flights offered by Star Alliance airlines. Lufthansa will be flying three times a week to Miami, four times to Tehran and three times to Tashkent in Uzbekistan. At the end of March Singapore Airlines will be operating five weekly flights to Singapore with a Boeing 777. All Nippon Airways will also be flying a Boeing 777 on its daily flights to Tokyo. In addition, Continental Airlines will be departing daily from Munich to Newark, near New York, with a Boeing 767. According to current scheduling, the number of intercontinental flights will increase by 6 percent to approximately 260 long-haul connections per week.

In 2009 scheduled services were offered from Munich to 235 destinations in 69 countries. As in the previous year September was again the busiest month, with 3.1 million passengers. On Friday, September 25 the airport handled 117,060 arriving and departing passengers: more than on any other day in 2009. The share of connecting passengers in total traffic increased another percentage point in 2009 to 37 percent. The increase yet again last year in the share of transit passengers underscores the continuing rise in the importance of Munich Airport's hub function.

In view of the significantly improved economic situation and a noticeable resurgence in demand for air travel, airport CEO Kerkloh sees strong medium to long-term prospects for a continuation of the successful development of the hub: "To be in a position to benefit from the existing growth opportunities, a third runway is urgently needed at Munich Airport. We therefore hope that the ongoing planning permission process will end with a positive ruling this year so that we can move forward decisively with the expansion projects that are so crucial to the development of our airport," said Kerkloh in summing up his statement at the annual press conference of the airport operating company.
http://www.munich-airport.de/en/general/presse/pm/2010/q1/pm10/index.jsp