When Terminal 2 at Munich Airport officially opened on June 29, 2003, it had already been through several months of trial operation. Nevertheless, there were problems on the opening day in some places. The baggage system bitchy, some escalators, automatic doors and the signage of the routes initially misled some passengers. Nevertheless, the airport manager at the time, Michael Kerkloh, summed it up that, on the whole, the start went well.
Kerkloh was again at Munich Airport on Thursday, but this time as a guest. He retired at the end of 2019 and handed over his post to Jost Lammers, who initially had to prove himself as a crisis manager because of the corona pandemic.
Now FMG and Lufthansa, who jointly operate Terminal 2, saw reason enough to celebrate again and invited guests to the ceremony on the terminal’s visitors’ terrace. There weren’t as many guests this time as there were at the opening ceremony on June 27, 2003. At that time, around 2,500 people were present, there were shows and a performance by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra of Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra”. It couldn’t get any smaller back then. The orchestra should have easily drowned out the approximately 200 demonstrators who demonstrated on the visitor hill against the expansion of the airport.
This time the guests at the 20th anniversary celebration on the visitors’ terrace – there must have been around 100 – had to be content with a string quartet and Viennese coffee house music. After all, on Thursday it was similar to the hot summer of 2003. And Jost Lammers, whose contract was prematurely extended by five years this week, was in good spirits because things at the airport are almost like they were before the Corona crisis. Terminal 2 was voted the best in the world by aviation research institute Skytrax in 2017.
At the topping-out ceremony in 1998, the new Munich Airport Center (MAC) at Munich Airport was still almost completely scaffolded.
(Photo: Peter_Kneffel/picture-alliance/dpa)
Even if it didn’t fare so well in the international rankings this year: Terminal 2, which was expanded to include the satellite building in 2016, can still be opened today with just a few changes as it was 20 years ago, said Lammers. The cooperation that the airport entered into with Lufthansa to build and operate the terminal building was unique in the world. Stefan Kreuzpaintner, head of the Lufthansa hub in Munich, recalled that in 2003 the crane line offered just seven intercontinental connections from Munich, today there are 26. But you have to get people to the airport first continue to work on the necessary rail connections.
The lack of this has been an issue since the airport opened 31 years ago. Nevertheless: It was only this spring that the federal government rejected an ICE connection at the airport. Bavaria’s finance minister Albert Füracker (CSU), who is chairman of the FMG supervisory board, also called for a long-distance train connection. At the same time, he criticized the fact that the rejection of new infrastructure was now widespread among the population.
He pointed out that Terminal 2 was planned and built within five years, which is hardly conceivable today given the delays and cost increases.
During the corona pandemic, Lufthansa cut more than 30,000 jobs
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said the terminal is one of the world’s most popular transfer terminals. Spohr admitted that Lufthansa had not managed to recruit enough staff for the rush of passengers after the corona restrictions were lifted. During the pandemic, the group cut more than 30,000 jobs.
This took revenge with delayed flights, cancellations and long waiting times. That should not be repeated, said Spohr. One must therefore consider how the vacancies could be filled again. In Munich, for example, Lufthansa is looking for flight attendants for the Airbus A380 stationed here and is “urgently”, as a spokeswoman said.
In theory, the building itself has no capacity problems: there are a total of 79 check-in counters here, 33 baggage machines and 161 gates. 475 million passengers were handled within two decades. While there was much talk of a “success story” on Thursday, another major event in Terminal 2 is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year: On July 28, a woman got through the security check unchecked and triggered the biggest chaos to date at Munich Airport. 330 flights were canceled and more than 30,000 passengers were affected at the start of the holiday.