Ruling blocks Airbus plan to extend Finkenwerder's runway to cater for customer-proving flights of heavy variants
Airbus is "reviewing its options" following last week's German court ruling blocking a planned runway extension at its Hamburg Finkenwerder plant. The longer runway is required to allow the plant to handle heavier derivatives of the A380, beginning with the -800 Freighter, which is due to enter service in 2008.
Finkenwerder will perform customisation of all A380s, and handle the delivery process for aircraft destined for European and Middle East customers. Having already completed a 360m (1,180ft) north-easterly runway extension towards the River Elbe to cater for the baseline A380-800, the company has been preparing to implement a 590m extension to the south west that will increase runway length to 3,270m. "This will enable us to operate customer proving flights with the A380 freighter at maximum take-off weight," says Airbus.
This second extension requires the demolition of 10 properties in the nearby village of Neuenfelde. Although the project had already received the green light from local authorities, Hamburg's higher administrative court last week sided with the owners of the properties, ruling that their potential personal suffering did not justify the industrial benefits of extending the runway. The ruling followed an earlier lower court injunction against the construction plan in June.
The first A380-800F does not fly until 2007, but the decision has had an immediate impact as Airbus had planned to undertake key ground work for the extension this month while the runway is closed for the holiday period. "As production is ramping up, the runway will not be closed again so we have no further opportunities," says Airbus.
Although the latest decision is not final, it does prevent any work being undertaken on the extension and a final ruling may take several years. "We are analysing our judicial options, and will publish a solution as soon as we have one," says Airbus.
MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / LONDON
Source: Flight International
