Lufthansa is continuing to invest in Frankfurt and the surrounding Rhine-Main region. At a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the A380 maintenance hangar on 21st September, which was attended by the Minister of Economics, Transport and Regional Development of the State of Hesse, Dr. Alois Riehl, and the Mayor of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, the company underscored its role as the biggest employer in Hesse.

"With the new runway and the stationing of our A380 fleet here in Frankfurt, we will create several thousand new jobs," said Stefan Lauer, Lufthansa Executive Board member and Chief Officer Aviation Services and Human Resources.

"Innovations form the foundation for our future and also for this location. The new maintenance hangar for the A380 is the visible proof," he added.

Professor Manfred Scholch, Vice Chairman of Fraport AG, the company that owns and operates the airport, commented: "We are delighted that this hangar for the A380 fleet has found its home here in Frankfurt."

Work on the first phase of construction, including parking positions, taxiways and the development of transport links to the area, will now proceed apace. The entire hangar system is scheduled for completion in 2015 in order to meet the growing demand for maintenance capacity for Lufthansa's long-haul fleet. Lufthansa is investing about 150 million euros in its A380 maintenance base.

"Lufthansa will invest about 150 million euros in what will then become Europe's largest aircraft maintenance hangar, the A380 base," stressed August Wilhelm Henningsen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik AG.

In order to build the Airbus A380 hangar at Frankfurt, Lufthansa signed a 65-year land utilisation agreement with Fraport AG for the 17-hectare site to the south-west of the airport.

The contract for the construction of the A380 hangar was awarded to a working group headed by Ed. Zublin AG, Stuttgart on the basis of a design by the architecture office GMP - von Gerka, Marg und Partner. Key project partners are based in the Rhine-Main region.