Social Experiment

Each time I visit the airport I seem to encounter an interesting phenomenon. Being the diligent law abiding citizen I always buy my S-bahn ticket, however a day ticket is a few cents more than a one way. Once I arrive at the airport it never seems to fail that it's next to impossible to give the ticket away. I've tried more than once. I'm not looking for payment, but here it seems the kindness of strangers is looked upon with extreme caution. I guess it goes under the same file as no 'leave a cent, take a cent' container at cash registers. Instead you just receive the 'German stare'.

Lost Luggage

Hopefully everyone had a well rested holiday and avoided the airport chaos. This was the scene as I was leaving Munich. Seeing as though our fine city fared better than many others I can only imagine the delays and lost baggage people encountered elsewhere.

Delayed Flights

It appears as though not everyone was ready for the heavy snowfall. Flights were delayed throughout much of Europe - including at our very own Franz Josef. At least four plows were making their way through to help planes arrive safely at the gates.

Great Indoors

With cold and rainy days upon us it's the perfect time to check out new restaurants and plan for cultural activities indoors. Another option, when it gets too gray and dreary, is to skip town and get a flight somewhere where the sun lingers just a little longer.

Airport Sleeper

Munich's airport is unquestionably nice and during Oktoberfest hotel prices swell, so it appears at least one reveler has taken to finding a cheap place to sleep. While this guy may not qualify as one of the 'Bierleichen' (beer corpses) it doesn't take much to see others passed out around Theresienwiese. Last year there was a count of 759.

A1

Audi unveils its newest car - the A1, which is meant to be competition to BMW's Mini. One of the joys of living so close to the factories is being able to pick up your new car directly from the production line. Some even offer trips to those who come from abroad to ship them back to their homeland after driving them around Europe.

Having cars at the airport immediately signifies to visitors that they have arrived to Munich, which is automobile heaven.

Munich’s Gold Medal Airport

Our focus turns once again to the Munich Airport, for several reasons – all of them good.  For starters, Franz Joseph Strauss airport was named best airport in Europe, and fourth best overall in the world, according to a survey of more than 10 million passengers by the London Aviation Research Institute.  Munich edged out Zurich, last year’s winner, and now ranks below only Singapore, Seoul, and Hong Kong.  I can’t argue here, having been to all of the airports mentioned, and nearly all in Europe.  Munich’s Terminal 2 is one of the cleanest, most efficient, and convenient of places, and Terminal 1 is segmented to feel like you are flying out of a tiny airport.  Well, the situation only gets better as the Bavarian government just approved a plan for a second S-bahn tunnel for an express train that will reach the center of Munich in 20 minutes.  We are reminded this coming weekend that it can’t come soon enough – with the airport expecting 1.5M passengers over the Easter weekend – with 17,000 takeoffs and landings.

Matchbox Mania

As you know, the Bavarians take their cars very seriously.  But not so seriously that you don’t see some innovative packaging around one of the latest BMWs.  I came across this scene at the airport, with some sort of promotion from Sixt, which is one of the most well known car leasing/renting companies in Munich.  Wrapped up like a Matchbox (which received its name from the boxes in the shape of a matchbox) car, this is one toy I’d love to take home with me.

Goin on the Cheap

There's no shortage of low cost airlines flying in/out of Munich. Some of the more popular names include Aer Lingus, AirBaltic, and Easy Jet. Or if you are a little more adventurous you can try Clickair or Jet2com. One of the largest all over Germany is Air Berlin, which is recognized at the only low cost German airline. I'm not quite certain if they are focused more on bringing people to or from Munich, but they generally hit all the popular Mediterranean spots, including Athens, Malaga, Milan, and Nice. It appears that Lufthansa is not the only game in town any more, especially because Air Berln is covering many of the Northern German
cities like Berlin, Cologne, and Dusseldorf. I caught this photo at the airport, in the comon space between termanals 1 and 2. I've always enjoyed this space as it has lots of retail, beer gardens, and even skating in the Winter. It's also the location where planes, tranes, and automobils come together.

On the Move

A visit to the Munich Airport shows non-stop activity – people coming and going from around the world. Officially called Flughafen München-Franz Josef Strauß – named after a popular German politician, it serves as a hub for Lufthansa. It is the second busiest airport in Germany and eighth busiest in the world, with 35 million passengers per year. The thing that always amazes me about the Munich airport, is how it’s built like a mini Sim-City, with airport overlapping with train, car, bus, bike, and foot traffic. The airport infrastructure is larger than most Bavarian villages around, with hotels, convention center, shopping center, entertainment, cinema, and visitor center, and of course brew pub. This image was taken on one of the many moving sidewalks on the lower level of Terminal 1.

Bavarian “Village” Life

Above Munich – Day 15: And for our final day of images from Above Munich, I take you far above the city – this time from an airplane. This photo was taken on the approach to Joseph Strauss Airport, just North of Munich. From this vantage point you can see the endless fields and forests that surround Munich. You also notice how green the region is. Once you get out of the cities, these areas are littered with quaint little villages – each with their towering church steeples, rich decorations, local food markets, and Christmas fairs. Much of life doesn’t seem to have changed for hundreds of years in these small villages. And much of the reason Munich is called a “Large Village” is because with 1.3 million residents, it maintains a lot of that tradition that has lived out in these small villages for centuries.

The Future of Air Travel in Munich

Of course, I’m not referring to the picture. That’s a picture of a Junkers JU 52, a transport aircraft manufactured in the 30s and 40s for both civilian and military service. The Ju 52 continued in use in air fleets into the 80s, but this one has been stationary for some time just outside the Munich airport at the 'Besucherpark.' But change is happening quickly at the Franz Joseph Strauss Airport, the second busiest airport in Germany. Because of the economic crisis, the airport has seen about a 10% drop in passenger traffic since last year, causing several lesser known airlines to pull out of Munich – such as Hungarian Malev and Clickair, a low cost Spanish airline. Also Air Berlin charter line is deleting many of their intercontinental flights to Bangkok, Cape Town, Maimi, Fort Myers, Mauritius and Cuba. At the same time other airlines like Turkish, Emirates, United, and Air Dolomiti have switched to larger plans on their routes. Strongest of them all, has been Lufthansa, which has really defied the downward trend by adding a third daily flight to New York and an additional weekly flight to Tel Aviv. And taking a long-term view, planning is still moving forward on building a third runway in Munich, although organizers face at least a two year wait (and a lot of angry protests from environmentalists) before breaking any ground. For me (I fly in/out of Munich once per week), I think Munich’s airport is one of the best in Europe with easy in/out, amazing efficiency, and good access to the city.

Fast Train a Commin?

Keeping with the theme of politics, one of the biggest controversies in Munich surrounds high speed trains - specifically the Transrapid magnet train. That may seem strange from a country that produces the ICE (InterCityExpress) train which can go 253 MPH, but the controversy is over this high-speed magnetic train linking the airport to the central Munich station, a trip that will take 10 minutes at 220 mph to cover 37 km. What’s so bad with that? It’s the price tag: 1.85B euros. The government wants to show off Germany’s tech prowess, but more than 13,000 protesters thought of better uses of the money.

Long Haul

No, this is not a stretched photo, but a picture of the Airbus A340-600 Super Stretch at the Munich airport. It has the capacity of a 747 but with twice the cargo capacity. With the ability to seat 419 passengers, it represents the tremendous increase in traffic through Munich. In 2007, Munich Airport increased its passengers by 3.2 million to a total of 34 million, making it the seventh busiest airport in Europe. Only Madrid grew faster in Europe. Munich set a single-day record of 122K passengers in 2007. Despite all this growth, Munich was named the best airport in Europe and the fourth best in the world, after Asian hubs in Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore. The infrastructure at the airport – including flights, trains, autos, buses, retail, services, conferencing facilities, etc – is larger than most surrounding cities.