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Lufthansa

Lufthansa

Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG) is the largest German airline company, headquartered in Cologne. Their main base is at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main which is also Lufthansa's primary traffic hub. The company has developed a second hub at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport. In the future after merging with SWISS, the Zurich Airport will be also a main traffic hub. Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, one of the world's major airline alliances. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 300 aircraft and employs about 97,000 people world-wide.

History

The company was founded in 1926 and headquartered in Berlin, following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr" on January 6 of that year. The company's original full name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft. The name Lufthansa derives from Luft (the German word for "air") and Hansa (the Hanseatic trade organization that was mainly active in Northern Europe during the medieval times). In the 1950s East Germany attempted to establish its own airline using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with West Germany, where the airline had been already re-established after the Second World War. East Germany instead called its national airline Interflug, which ceased operations in 1991. Lufthansa was banned from flying into West Berlin until the demise of the communist regime. Lufthansa was the launch customer of the Boeing 737 aircraft, and the only buyers of new 737-100s. By doing so, Lufthansa became the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing commercial plane. On 17 May 2004, Lufthansa became the launch customer for Boeing's Connexion in-flight online connectivity service. In June 2003 Lufthansa opened new Terminal 2 at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß Airport (MUC) to relieve its main hub, Frankfurt (FRA), which is plagued with capacity constraints. It is one of the first terminals in Europe partially owned by an airline. On 22 March 2005 SWISS merged with Lufthansa Airlines. The deal consists of Lufthansa offering public shareholders the average price over the weeks prior to the announcement. The majority shareholders (the Swiss government and large Swiss companies) will be offered payment if Lufthansa's share price outperforms an airline index during the years following the merger.

Other Businesses

In addition to its mainline operation, Lufthansa has many subsidiaries. The most important are:
- Lufthansa Cargo
- Lufthansa Technik, one of the world's largest aircraft maintenance providers
- Lufthansa Systems, one of the world's leading aviation IT-providers
- Lufthansa Regional, a regional carrier that is an alliance of several small airlines, including Lufthansa CityLine
- Lufthansa CityLine, a regional carrier
- Thomas Cook, a travel services provider
- Air Dolomiti, an airline based in Trieste, Italy
- Delvag, an insurance company specializing in air transport
- LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest airline caterer, which accounts for one third of the world's airline meals
- Lufthansa Flight Training, a major provider of flight crew training services to various airlines
- Condor, a travel services provider

Destinations

See full article: Lufthansa destinations

Fleet

The Lufthansa fleet consists of the following aircraft (as per September 2005): Lufthansa received over 4,000 aircraft since its founding; the 4,000th aircraft was an Airbus A330-300. Lufthansa has ordered 15 Airbus A380 aircraft. The first will be delivered before the end of 2007 and they are likely to be used on services to Asia and the USA (ref: Airliner World, March 2005). Through its Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung, it operates three classic German aircraft as well:
- 1 Junkers Ju 52
- 1 Messerschmitt Me 108
- 1 Dornier Do 27

See also


- Interflug
- Lufthansa heist

External links


- [http://www.lufthansa.com/ Lufthansa]
- [http://http://www.lufthansa-ju52.de/ Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung]
- [http://www.planemad.net/Airline/DE/Lufthansa_(LH_DLH)/Fleet.htm?show=all Lufthansa Fleet Detail]
- [http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/lufth.htm Lufthansa Passenger Opinions]
- [http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/41/41803.html Lufthansa Company Profile (Yahoo)] Category:Airlines of Germany Category:Lufthansa ja:ルフトハンザドイツ航空



Frankfurt International Airport

|- !align="center" bgcolor="#0099FF" colspan="4"|Summary |- |- ! bgcolor="lightgrey"|IATA |FRA ! bgcolor="lightgrey"|ICAO |EDDF |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Airport type |colspan="2" valign="top"|public |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Operator |colspan="2" valign="top"|Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Serves |colspan="2" valign="top"|Frankfurt, Germany |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Elevation MSL |colspan="2" valign="top"|371 ft (113 m) |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Coordinates |colspan="2" valign="top"| The Frankfurt International Airport (IATA: FRA, ICAO: EDDF) (German: Rhein-Main-Flughafen or Flughafen Frankfurt am Main) is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is the largest airport in Germany and the second or third-largest in Europe (depending on which data is used), serving as an important hub for international flights from around the world. It is run by Fraport AG. The southern side of the airport, until late 2005, was known as Rhein-Main Air Base, a major airlift base for the United States from 1947 on. Frankfurt International is a hub of Lufthansa, the German flag carrier. Because of undercapacity in Frankfurt, Lufthansa divides traffic between Frankfurt and Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport when possible. Frankfurt International currently serves more destinations than London's Heathrow International Airport, but in terms of passenger traffic Frankfurt International is third in Europe, behind London's Heathrow Airport and Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport.
- Passenger traffic at Frankfurt International Airport in 2004 was 51,098,271 [http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci/display/main/aci_content.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54_9_2__], compared with 67,344,054 at Heathrow Airport, and 51,260,363 at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
- In terms of plane movement, Frankfurt was second in Europe with 477,475 planes [http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci/display/main/aci_content.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-57_9_2__], between Charles de Gaulle Airport (525,660) and Heathrow (475,999).
- In terms of cargo traffic, Frankfurt was also second with 1,838,894 metric tonnes (2,027,034 US tons) [http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci/display/main/aci_content.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-190_9_2__], just behind Charles de Gaulle Airport (1,876,900 metric tonnes), but ahead of Heathrow (1,412,033 metric tonnes). Nevertheless, there are plans to expand Frankfurt Airport with a fourth runway and a new Terminal 3, and to modify the airport to be able to service the new Airbus A-380 plane, by building a large A380 maintenance facility near the former U.S. Air Base. After Dubai (with forty-three A380s), the airport will be the base for the second-largest A380-fleet in the world (up to fifteen A380s).

History

The Rhein-Main Airport and Airship Base opened in 1936, and was the second-largest airport in Germany (after Tempelhof Airport in Berlin) through World War II. After the war, it served as the main West German operations base for the Berlin Airlift. The airport did not emerge as a major international hub until 1972, when its new passenger terminal (now Terminal 1) opened.

Incidents on flights that departed from Frankfurt

In 1969, Ariana Flight 701, a Boeing 727 of Ariana Afghan Airlines was arriving to London Gatwick Airport from Frankfurt International when it crashed into a house, killing 50 of the 66 people aboard. Two people died on the ground. On 22 May 1983 during an airshow at the Rhein-Main Air Base, a Canadian RCAF F-104 Starfighter crashes onto a nearby street, hitting a car and killing all passengers, the 5 headed family of a pastor. The pilot was able to eject. The first leg of Pan Am Flight 103 (a Boeing 727) took off from Frankfurt. About half of the passengers and luggage changed plane at Heathrow Airport.

Structure and function

Frankfurt Airport has two passenger terminals, which are connected by corridors as well as by people movers and buses.

Terminal 1

buses Terminal 1 opened on March 14th, 1972. It was designed in a modern style for the period, with polished silver interiors and corrugated walls. It is divided into three concourses.

Concourse A


- Adria Airways (Ljubljana, Ohrid, Podgorica, Priština, Sarajevo, Skopje, Vienna)
- Air Baltic (Riga)
- Air Dolomiti (Bologna, Florence, Verona)
- Air One (Milan/Linate and Rome)
- Austrian Airlines (Klagenfurt, Vienna, Salzburg)
- Avianca (Bogotá (starts 2006))
- Blue Panorama Airlines (Rome)
- Blue Wings (Moscow/Sheremetyevo)
- Cimber Air (Kiel)
- Condor Airlines (Agadir, Anchorage, Antalya, Bourgas, Cancun, Colombo, Fairbanks, Faro, Fort Myers, Halifax, Havana, Holguin, Ibiza, La Palma, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Las Vegas, Manorca, Mauritius, Mombasa, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Porlamar, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Rhodes, San José (CR), Tenerife-Sur Reina, Thessaloniki, Tobago, Valencia, Vancouver, Varadero, Varna, Whitehorse)
- Lufthansa (Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Algiers, Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Ashgabat, Asmara, Athens, Atlanta, Baku, Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin/Tegel, Bilbao, Billund, Birmingham (UK), Bologna, Boston, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calgary, Cape Town, Caracas, Casablanca, Chania, Charlotte, Chicago/O'Hare, Copenhagen, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dammam, Delhi, Denver, Detroit, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Faro, Florence, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Hof-Plauen, Hong Kong, Houston/Intercontinental, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Katowice, Kazan, Khartoum, Kiev, Klagenfurt, Lagos, Larnaca, Leipzig, Linz, Lisbon, London/City, London/Gatwick, London/Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madras, Madrid, Manila, Marseille, Mexico City, Miami, Milan/Linate, Milan/Malpensa, Minsk, Montréal, Moscow/Sheremetyevo, Muenster/Osnabrueck, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nagoya, New York/JFK, Newark, Nice, Nizhniy Novgorod, Oslo, Osaka/Kansai, Paderborn, Paris/CDG, Perm, Philadelphia, Portland, Porto, Poznan, Prague, Riga, Rimini, Riyadh, Rome/Fiumicino, Rostov, St. Petersburg (RU), Salzburg, Samara, San Francisco, Sanaa, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Split, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Taipei, Tallinn, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Tokyo Narita, Tolouse, Toronto, Tripoli, Tunis, Turin, Ufa, Valencia, Vancouver, Verona, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Washington/Dulles, Wroclaw, Zagreb, Zurich)
- Luxair (Luxembourg)
- Omskavia Airlines (Chelyabinsk and Omsk)
- Scandinavian Airlines (Bilbao, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Tromso)
- Spanair (Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Vilnius)
- Tyrolean

Concourse B


- All Nippon Airways (Osaka and Tokyo/Narita)
- Aeroflot (Moscow/Sheremetyevo and Rostov)
- Air Algerie (Algiers)
- Air Canada (Calgary, Montréal, Toronto)
- Air China (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang)
- Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
- Air Namibia (Windhoek)
- Airlines of Kuban (Krosnodar)
- Alitalia (Milan/Linate, Milan/Malpensa, Rimini, Rome/Fiumicino)
- Asiana (Seoul)
- Bulgaria Air (Varna)
- CSA Czech Airlines (Prague)
- Cirrus Airlines (Skopje)
- Corsair
- Croatia Airlines (Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb)
- Cyprus Airways (Larnaca and Paphos)
- Egyptair (Cairo)
- Eritrean Airlines (Asmara)
- Estonian Air (Tallinn)
- Eurowings
- Hapag-Lloyd Flug (Alicante, Antalya, Chania, Hanover, Ibiza, Karkyra, Kos, Lanzarote, Manorca, Palma de Mallorca, Patras, Reykjavik, Rhodes, Tenerife-Sur Reina, Thessaloniki, Thira)
- Kirbis Turkish Airlines (Ankara)
- Kuwait Airways (Kuwait)
- Libyan Arab Airlines (Tripoli)
- LOT Polish (Katowice, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw)
- Maersk Air (Bilbao and Copenhagen)
- Middle East Airlines Liban (Beirut)
- Olympic Airways (Athens and Thessaloniki)
- Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca and Nador)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman)
- Singapore Airlines (New York/JFK and Singapore)
- South African Airways (Cape Town and Johannesburg)
- Sunexpress (Antalya)
- Syrian Arab Airlines (Aleppo)
- TAP Air Portugal (Faro and Lisbon)
- TAROM (Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara)
- Thai Airways International (Bangkok and Phuket)
- Thomas Cook Airlines
- Tunisair (Monastir and Tunis)
- Turkish Airlines (Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir)
- United Airlines (Chicago/O'Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington/Dulles)
- Varig (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo)
- Vietnam Airlines (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City)

Concourse C


- Aegean Cronus (Athens and Thessaloniki)
- Air Anatolia
- Air Bosna
- Air India (Bangalore, Delhi, Los Angeles, Madras, Mumbai)
- Albanian Airlines (Tirana)
- American Airlines (Chicago/O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth)
- Ariana Afghan Airlines (Kabul)
- Arkia Israel Airlines
- Atlasjet (Antalya)
- Biman Bangladesh (Dhaka)
- El Al (Tel Aviv)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)
- Iran Air (Tehran)
- Jat Airways (Belgrade)
- Kibriz Turk (Antalya)
- Kyrgyzstan Airlines
- Kyrgyz Airways (Bishkek)
- Luxor Air
- Nouvelair Tunisie
- Onur Air
- Pakistan International Airlines (Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore)
- Pegasus Airlines
- Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah and Riyadh)
- Sky Airlines
- SriLankan (Colombo)
- Transaero Airlines (Moscow Domodedovo)
- US Airways (Charlotte, Philadelphia)
- Yemenia Airways (Sanaa)

Terminal 2

Yemenia Airways Terminal 2 opened on October 24th, 1994. It is designed to resemble a classical railway station from its landside facade. It is divided into two concourses.

Concourse D


- Aer Lingus (Dubin)
- Aeroflight (Alicante, Ankara, Antalya, Dubrovnik, Karpathos, Karkyra, Kos, Mikonos, Rhodes, St. Petersburg (RU), Zakinthos)
- Aeroflot DON
- Air Adriatic
- Air Astana (Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, Kustanay)
- Air France (Paris/CDG and Valencia)
- Air Malta (Luqa)
- Air VIA Bulgarian
- Air Zena Georgian
- Belavia (Minsk)
- Bulgarian Air Charter
- China Airlines (Taipei)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, New York/JFK)
- Deutsche BA
- Dnieproavia (Dnieproavia)
- East Line Airlines
- Freebird Airlines
- Georgian Airlines (Tbilisi)
- Japan Airlines (Tokyo/Narita)
- Karthago Airlines
- Korean Air (Seoul/Incheon)
- Kuban Airlines (Krosnador)
- Lithuanian Airlines (Palanga and Vilnius)
- Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur and Kuching)
- MALEV Hungarian (Budapest)
- Odessa Airlines
- Omskavia
- Portugalia (Lisbon)
- Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise (St. Petersburg (RU))
- Royal Brunei (Bandar Seri Begawan, Bangkok and Sharjah)
- Sibaviatrans
- Swiss International Airlines (Ohrid and Zurich)
- Tuninter
- Turkmenistan Airlines (Ashgabat)
- Ukraine International (Kiev, Lvov, Simferopol)
- Uzbekistan Airways (Tashkent)

Concourse E


- Air Berlin (Alicante, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca)
- Air Plus Comet
- Air Seychelles (Seychelles)
- Air Transat (Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver)
- British Airways (Birmingham (UK), Bristol, Glasgow, London/Gatwick, London/Heathrow)
- British Airways Citiexpress
- Bulgarian Air Charter
- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
- Continental Airlines (Houston/Intercontinental and Newark)
- Enkor
- Finnair (Helsinki)
- Futura International Airways
- Gulf Air (Bahrain and Muscat)
- Hamburg International (Hamburg)
- Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza)
- Icelandair (Reykjavik)
- Inter Airlines
- KLM Cityhopper (Amstedam and Rotterdam)
- Kras Air (Omsk)
- LAN Airlines (Madrid and Santiago)
- LTU International Airways (Alicante, Antalya, Cancun, Faro, Ibiza, Kavala, Kerkyra, Lanzarote, Manorca, Mauritius, Monastir, Palma de Mallorca, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Rhodes, Samos, Sharm El Sheik, Tenerife-Sur Reina, Thessaloniki, Valencia, Varadero, Varna)
- Montenegro Airlines (Podgorica)
- Northwest Airlines (Detroit)
- Qantas (Singapore and Sydney)
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- SATA International (Ponta Delgada)
- Saratov Airlines
- Siberia Airlines (Moscow/Domodedovo and Novosibirsk)
- Yemenia Yemen Airways (Sanaa)

Other Features & Amenities

Frankfurt has two cargo terminals, North and South, as well as a separate General Aviation Terminal on the south side of the airport. There is also a Sheraton hotel adjacent to Terminal 1. Terminal 1 also has a full-service German government Post Office & DHL office open to the public.

Ground transportation

Sheraton Deutsche Bahn operates the AiRail Service in conjunction with Lufthansa, American Airlines and Emirates. There is a fast ICE service to Cologne with one or two stops only. The service operates to Bonn Hbf Rail Station, Cologne Hbf Rail Station, Düsseldorf Hbf Rail Station, Freiburg Hbf Rail Station, Hamburg Hbf Rail Station, Hanover Hbf Rail Station, Mannheim Hbf Rail Station, Munich Hbf Railway Station, Nuremberg Hbf Rail Station, and Stuttgart Hbf Rail Station. The AirRail long-distance railway station is adjacent to Terminal 1. The airport is located adjacent to the A3 and A5 Autobahnen: taxis to the city center cost approximately 20 euro. An S-Bahn connection to Frankfurt is available; it costs about €4. Trains take 12 minutes to reach Frankfurt centre-city stations and depart roughly every 15 minutes on weekdays from the regional train station underneath Terminal 1. Various companies provide bus services to the airport.

External links


- http://www.frankfurt-airport.de
- [http://www.frankfurt360.de/flughafen.htm www.frankfurt360.de/flughafen.htm] 360°-Panoramas from Frankfurt Airport
- http://www.fraport.de/
- [http://www.frankfurt-fra.com/ Frankfurt Airport] - Find about Frankfurt Airport with maps, terminal information and hotels near by.
- [http://www.numlink.com/FRA Satellite image] Category:Frankfurt Category:Airports in Germany ja:フランクフルト国際空港

Munich

Munich (German: München (pronounced 10px listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. After Berlin and Hamburg, Munich is Germany's third largest city with a population of about 1.4 million (as of 2004). The Munich metropolitan area is home to around 3 million people. The city is located on the river Isar, at . The city's motto is "Die Weltstadt mit Herz" (The world city with a heart).

History

The city was founded next to an already existing settlement of monks Munichen (Latin Monacum, Monachium) by the Welf Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. The village grew around a bridge, that Henry initially built over the river 'Isar'. To force traders to use his bridge (and, of course charge them for doing so) he destroyed a nearby bridge owned by bishop Otto von Freising (Freising). Therefore the bishop and Henry quarreled about the city before the emperor at a Reichstag held in Augsburg in 1158. Almost two decades later Munich was granted city status and fortified. In 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the bishop of Freising. Otto's heirs, the Wittelsbach dynasty would rule Bavaria until 1918. In 1240 Munich itself was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, when the dukedom of Bavaria was split in two, Munich became the ducal residence of Upper Bavaria. Duke Louis IV was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328, Munich was his residence, got extended and protected with a new fortification. In 1327 most of the city was destroyed by a fire but was rebuilt and extended some years later. When Bavaria was reunited in 1506 Munich became capital of the whole of Bavaria. During the 16th century Munich was a center of German counter reformation. In 1623 during the Thirty Years' War Munich became electoral residence when Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria was invested with the electoral dignity but in 1632 the city was occupied by Gustav II Adolph of Sweden. In 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession it was under the control of the Habsburg family for some years since Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria made a pact with France. The coronation of his son elector Charles Albert as Emperor Karl VII in 1742 led to another Habsburg occupation. The city's first academic institution, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, was founded in 1759 by Maximilian III Joseph. By that time, the city was growing very quickly and was one of the largest cities in continental Europe. In 1806, it became the capital of the new Kingdom of Bavaria, with the state's parliament (the Landtag) and the new archdiocese of Munich and Freising being located in the city. Twenty years later Landshut University was moved to Munich. Landshut University Many of the city's finest buildings belong to this period and were built under the reign of the king Ludwig I. These neoclassical buildings include the Ruhmeshalle with the "Bavaria" statue by Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler and those on the magnificent Ludwigstraße and the Königsplatz, built by the architects Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gärtner. Under king Max II the Maximilianstraße was constructed in English Perpendicular Style. In 1882 electric lighting was introduced to the country Munich, and the city hosted Germany's first exhibition of electricity,and in 1930 the first ever electrical television was showcased at the Deutsches Museum (founded in 1903) in Munich on Isar River. In 1901 the Hellabrunn Zoo opened in the city. After World War I, the city was at the center of much unrest. In November 1918 on the eve of revolution, Ludwig III and his family fled Munich. After the murder of the first republican premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner in February 1919 Communists took power establishing the Bavarian Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) which was put down already on May 3 1919 by the militarist Freikorps, many of whom were later drawn to Adolf Hitler and National Socialism. In 1923 Hitler and his supporters, who then were concentrated in Munich, staged the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic and seize power. But the revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest and the temporary crippling of the Nazi Party, which was virtually unknown outside Munich. However, the city would once again become a Nazi stronghold when they took power in Germany in 1933. Because of its importance to the rise of Nazism, the Nazis called it Hauptstadt der Bewegung ("capital of the movement"). The NSDAP headquarters were in Munich and many Führerbauten ("Führer-buildings") were built around the Königsplatz, some of which have survived to this day. NSDAP In 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed in the city, ceding the mostly German speaking Sudetenland, previously a part of Czechoslovakia since the end of WWI, to Germany. It was signed by representatives of Germany, Italy, France and Britain. A year later, in 1939, Georg Elser failed with his attempt to assassinate Hitler while the latter was giving his annual speech to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. Munich was the city where the White Rose (German: Die Weiße Rose), a group of students that formed a resistance movement from June 1942 to February 1943, was based. The core members were arrested following a distribution of leaflets in Munich University by Hans and Sophie Scholl. The city was very heavily damaged by allied bombing during World War II. After American occupation in 1945, Munich was completely rebuilt following a meticulous and, by comparison to other war-ravaged German cities, a rather conservative plan which preserved its pre-war street grid. Munich was the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, during which Israeli athletes were assassinated by Palestinian terrorists (see Munich massacre), where terrorist gunmen from the Palestinian "Black September" group took hostage members of the Israeli Olympic team. A rescue attempt by the West German government was unsuccessful and resulted in the deaths of the Israeli hostages, five of the terrorists, and one German police officer. Several games of the 1974 Soccer World Cup were also held in the city. It was the stage of the German triumph against the Netherlands in a legendary final. In 2006 it will again be host to several games, including the opening match of the next FIFA Soccer World Cup. Soccer World Cup The current Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising on June 29, 1951. Ratzinger served as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

Main Sights

1982 Munich is a popular tourist destination and has been described as Germany's "secret capital". Center of the city is the Marienplatz with the Old and the New Townhall, its tower contains as attraction the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, an ornate clock with almost life-sized moving figures that show scenes from a medieval jousting tournament as well as a performance of the famous "Schäfflertanz" (roughly translated "Barrel-makers' dance"). clock The Peterskirche is the oldest church of the inner city. The Frauenkirche ("Dom zu unserer Lieben Frau" - Cathedral of Our Lady) is the most famous building in the city center. This is Munich's central cathedral and is famous for the brass onion domes that top the twin towers. The domes were added in the 16th century not matching the gothic style of the building and thus giving it a somewhat peculiar style-mix. The original design asked for pointed towers like the dome of Cologne but those where never built for lack of money. At first glance the two towers appear to be the same height but in actual fact one is slightly taller than the other. Unlike most buildings in Munich's old town, the towers of the Frauenkirche (but not the church itself) survived the war intact, making them more than 500 years old. The Frauenkirche's towers (99 meters or 325 feet) are also the measurement for a new rule which limits the height of new buildings to the same height in the city. This rule was passed in November 2004 by the people of Munich in a referendum organized by Georg Kronawitter, a former SPD mayor, against the will of the political parties in the city's parliament ("Stadtrat") who feared that it would harm the city's attractiveness to investors. Three gates of the demolished medieval fortification have survived until today, the Isartor, the Sendlinger Tor and finally the Karlstor at Stachus, a grand square with the Palace of Justice. The Michaelskirche is the largest renaissance church north of the Alps, the Theatinerkirche is a basilica in Italianate high baroque which had a major influence on Southern German baroque architecture. The Asamkirche was endowed and built by the Brothers Asam, pioneering artists of the rococo period. St Michael in Berg am Laim was built almost simultaneously by Johann Michael Fischer and might be the most remarkable church out of the inner city. With the Residenz Munich owns one of Europe's most significant interior decoration museums. The palace was built in 1385 and gradually expanded and contains also the treasury and the splendid rococo Cuvilliés Theatre. Munich citizens also enjoy a world renown neo-classical opera house, the National Theatre where several operas of Richard Wagner had premiere under the the patronage of Ludwig II of Bavaria. Four grand avenues of the 19th century with magnificent official buildings remind on the kingdom of Bavaria, the Brienner Strasse with the Königsplatz, the neoclassical Ludwigstrasse with the Ludwig-Maximilian University, the Maximilianstrasse with the Parliament and finally the Prinzregentenstrasse. Two large baroque palaces with grand parks remind on Bavaria's monarchy as well, Schloß Nymphenburg (Nymphenburg Palace) and Schloß Schleißheim (Schleissheim Palace). The city has several important art museums, most of them can be found in the Kunstareal as the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek, and the Pinakothek der Moderne. Before World War I, it was also the site of the Blaue Reiter group of artists, many of which can be seen at the Lenbachhaus. A profound collection of Greek and Roman art is provided by the Glyptothek and the Staatliche Antikensammlung. The State Museum of Ethnology is the second largest in Germany of artefacts and objects from outside Europe, the Bavarian National Museum is one of Europe's major art and cultural history museums. Other famous tourist attractions include the Deutsches Museum (Germany's largest science museum) and the English Garden (Englischer Garten - a garden park roughly in the center of the city that contains a nudist area, jogging tracks and bridle-paths) and the The Olympic Park with its stadium was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics which were held in Munich. The Olympic buildings are famous for their design, which was inspired by dew-covered cobwebs. Visitors can be elevated on top of the Olympic Tower (Olympiaturm), which is also an important radio and TV broadcasting tower. The 2006 World Cup, however, will not take place in the traditional Olympic Stadium, but in Munich's new soccer stadium, the Allianz Arena. Nearby the oldest church within the city borders Hl Kreuz with a romanesque fresco. Perhaps Munich's most famous attraction is the Oktoberfest, a 2-week-long fair with many rides and several very large tents. The Oktoberfest was first held October 12, 1810 in honor of the marriage of crown Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities were closed with a horse race and in the following years the horse races were continued and later developed into what is now known as the Oktoberfest. Despite its name, Oktoberfest actually begins in September. It lasts two weeks and always finishes on the first Sunday in October unless the German national holiday on the 3rd of October ("Tag der deutschen Einheit" - Day of German Unity) is a Monday or Tuesday - then the Oktoberfest still opens for these days. Oktoberfest

Other


- Königsplatz
- Hofbräuhaus
- BMW Headquarters
- Arabella High-Rise Building

Around Munich

Lying on the plain of the Voralpenland, the Munich agglomeration sprawls unhindered by geography. Several smaller traditional Bavarian cities are today part of the Munich suburbia and are worth a visit when the main Munich sights are exhausted.
- Dachau
- Erding
- Fürstenfeldbruck
- Freising
- Garching bei München
- Starnberg

Economy

Munich is one of the centers of the "new" German economy as a center for biotechnology, software and other service industries. The city is home to the global headquarters of German insurance companies Allianz and Munich Re, the car manufacturer BMW, the technology firms Siemens and Infineon Technologies, as well as the German headquarters of McDonald’s and Microsoft. Lufthansa has opened a second hub at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss International Airport. In addition to this, Munich is home to many publishing houses, second only to New York City. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the largest German language daily newspapers, is published in Munich.

Lifestyle

Residents of Munich enjoy a high quality of life. Mercer HR Consulting consistently rates the city among the top 10 cities with highest quality of life worldwide. The [http://www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1173105 2005 survey] ranked Munich as 5th. Munich enjoys a thriving economy - principally information technology, biotechnology, and publishing. Environmental pollution is low, although currently the city is concerned about levels of fine dust in the air. The public transport is extremely efficient, although delays on the S-Bahn (commuter train) often cause frustration during extreme winter weather. The crime rate is very low. This high quality of life and safety has caused the city to be nicknamed "Toytown" amongst some of the English-speaking residents. Nightlife is thriving. There are over 6,000 licensed establishments in the city. Cafe culture is strong in Munich, especially during the summer. There are many restaurants accommodating all preferences of cuisine. And possibly the most important free time activity during the summer: the beer gardens. There are around 20 major beer gardens with four of the most famous and popular being located in the Englischer Garten - one of the largest city parks in the world.

Miscellaneous

Munich's current mayor is Christian Ude of the SPD (Social-democratic Party of Germany). Munich has a nearly unbroken history of SPD governments since World War II. This is extraordinary because the rest of Bavaria is a conservative stronghold, with the CSU (Christian Social Union) winning absolute majorities among the Bavarian electorate in nearly all elections communal, state and federal level. The figure on Munich's coat-of-arms is the Münchner Kindl, the child of Munich (a monk). See also: List of mayors of Munich

Transportation

List of mayors of Munich Franz Josef Strauss International Airport (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM) is the main airport in Munich. The airport can be reached by suburban train lines S1 and S8. Munich has a large public transport system including Subways, Suburban trains, trams and buses. For its population, Munich has one of the most comprehensive systems in the world. The local transportation is supervised by the Munich Transport and Tariff Association ([http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/index.html Münchner Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund]).

Sports clubs


- Bayern Munich
- TSV 1860 Munich
- SpVgg Unterhaching (not really a club from Munich as Unterhaching is a rural village of its own)
- Munich Irish Rovers FC

Colleges and universities


- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), founded in 1472 in Ingolstadt, moved to Munich in 1826
- Technical University of Munich (TUM), founded in 1868
- Munich University of Applied Sciences (FHM), founded in 1971
- Universität der Bundeswehr München, founded in 1973
- Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, founded in 1830
- Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, founded in 1808
- Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film , founded in 1966
- Hochschule für Philosophie München, founded in 1925 in Pullach, moved to Munch in 1971
- Hochschule für Politik München
- Katholische Stiftungsfachhochschule München, founded in 1971
- Munich Business School (MBS)
- European School of Management and Technology (esmt)
- Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute)
- Fraunhofer Institute

Twin cities


- Bordeaux, since 1964
- Cincinnati, since 1989
- Edinburgh, since 1954
- Harare, since 1996
- Kyiv, since 1989
- Sapporo, since 1972
- Verona, since 1960

External links


-
- [http://www.muenchen.de/ muenchen.de] - The city's own website.
- [http://www.oktoberfest.de/ Oktoberfest] - official website, information in both English and German
- [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/europe/munich Lonely Planet guide to Munich]
- [http://www.toytownmunich.com/ Toytown Munich] - an English language community website for Munich
- [http://www.inyourpocket.com/germany/munich/en/ In Your Pocket] - an English language city guide to Munich
- [http://www.munich-to-vienna-via-salzburg.com/munich/index.html Munich Travel Guide] insights from a local citizen
- [http://www.travel-impressions.de/munich/muenchen.htm Photos] of Munich, sights, daily life, oktoberfest, etc.
- [http://www.panorama-cities.net/munich/munich.html Munich City Panoramas] - Views and virtual tours
- Category:Cities in Germany Category:German state capitals Category:Towns in Bavaria Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Host Cities of FIFA World Cup ko:뮌헨 ja:ミュンヘン simple:Munich th:มิวนิก

Munich International Airport

Munich International Airport , officially named Franz Josef Strauss International Airport (German: Flughafen München-Franz-Josef-Strauß) is located 28 km northeast of Munich, Germany, and is a hub for Lufthansa and Star Alliance partner airlines. The airport lies in portions of four municipalities: Freising, Oberding (location of the terminals), Hallbergmoos and Marzling. The jurisdiction for the airport is at the local Court of Erding (Amtsgericht Erding).

History

It began operations in 1992, replacing the former international Airport in München-Riem. When its construction was started in 1980 a village named Franzheim had to be demolished, its 500 inhabitants having been resettled in other places in the area. As Lufthansa's home base at Frankfurt International Airport is heavily saturated with traffic and has capacity limits, cities with large frequencies are served through Munich Franz Josef Strauss airport as well as Frankfurt International. The airport was named after Franz Josef Strauß, a post World War II German conservative politician who was a member of the Nazi party and a Officer in the Wehrmacht during the war, and who, later on, played an important role in German politics, then representing democratic, albeit strongly conservative values and "Bavaria as such". Strauss had been prime minister in Bavaria (the federal state where the airport is located) for a long time; under his government, the airport had been planned. Strauss, having been a private pilot himself, was said to have a particular interest in the aviation industry and infrastructure. Naming the airport by its full name is quite uncommon, even the airport authority is only named "Flughafen München Gesellschaft". In the Munich area, most people prefer the term "Flughafen München" (Munich Airport), sometimes "Flughafen München II" or simply MUC. In June 2003, Terminal 2 was finished, housing Star Alliance partners exclusively.

Geography

Star Alliance Munich city center can be reached by the Munich S-Bahn lines S1 and S8 which take approximately forty minutes and cost about 8 Euro one way. Taxi rides to downtown Munich cost about 50 Euro and can encounter traffic jams. Public transport in Munich is widely available and reliable. The nearby cities of Freising and Erding can be reached by taxi (15 minutes, 18 Euro). The Munich Airport Center is situated between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. It is both a shopping mall and a business center with conference facilities. There is also the Airbräu restaurant and a shopping mall.

Terminals

There are two terminals at Munich. The airport is roughly divided into three parts, Terminal 1, common area and Terminal 2, which is the newest part. Terminal 1 and 2 are behind the last security check and are much more sparse in shops and eateries than the common area. The latter contains the airport's own brewpub, Airbräu.

Terminal One

Terminal 1 houses most non-Star Alliance airlines, it has 60 stands, 19 airbridges and 14 boarding stations. The halls or areas are numbered A-F (F being nearer teminal 2). It was opened on 17th May 1992 and is capable of handling 20 million passengers per year. 68 Airlines Use Terminal One.

Variable Halls


- Air Transat (Calgary, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver)
- Hapag-Lloyd (Brindisi, Cairo, Catania, Dalaman, Faro, Feurteventura, Hanover, Hurghada, Jerez de la Frontera, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Malaga, Marsa Alam, Menorca, Monastir, Palma Manorca, Patras, Rhodes, Sharm el Sheikh)
- Hapag-Lloyd Express (Newcastle, Olbia)

Hall A


- Air Europa (Palma Mallorca)
- dba (Athens, Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Florence, Hamburg, Hanover, Istanbul, Koln-Bonn, Leipzig, Moscow-Domodedovo, Muenster-Osnabruck, Nice, Rome Fiumcino)
- LTU International (Adana, Alicante, Almeria, Cancun, Catania, Colombo, Faro, Feurteventura, Fort Myers, Fuchal, Hurghada, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Male, Mauritius, Menorca, Miami, Naples, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Reykjavik, Rhodes, Tenerife, Varna, Windhoek)

Hall B


- British Airways (Bristol, Glasgow, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
- Hamburg International
- Maersk Air (Copenhagen)
- MALÉV Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)
- OLT (Bremen)
- Tunis Air (Tunis)

Hall C


- Aeroflight (Prestina, Rhodes, Simferopol, Tel Aviv)
- Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
- African Safari Airlines (Mombasa)
- Air Berlin (Malaga, Palma, Palma Manorca)
- Air Cairo (Hurghada, Luxor)
- Air Malta (Malta)
- Air Via (Bourgas, Varna)
- Atlas Blue (Agadir)
- Carpatair Romania (Timisoara)
- CSA Czech Airlines (Prague)
- Donbaessaero (Donetsk, Odessa)
- Bulgarian Air Charter (Bourgas, Varna)
- Egyptair (Cairo, Hurghada)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi)
- Eurocypria Airlines (Larnaca, Paphos)
- Inter Express (Bodrum)
- KMV (Mineralnye Vody)
- Onur Air
- Pulkovo Aviation (Moscow-Vnukovo, St. Petersburg)
- Polet Airlines (Voronezh)
- Pegasus Airlines (Bodrum)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman)
- Siberia Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo)
- Sky Airline
- Sun Express (Bodrum)
- Syrian Arab Airlines (Damascus)
- TACV (Sal)
- Tajikistan Airlines (Dushanbe)
- TAROM Romania (Bucharest, Cluj, Sibiu)
- Turkish Airlines (Istanbul)
- Ural Airlines (Ekaterinburg)

Hall D


- Aegean Airlines (Athens)
- Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
- Aerolíneas Argentinas (Buenos Aires, Madrid)
- Air France (Lyon, Paris)
- Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
- Atlas International (Istanbul)
- Easyjet (STN)
- Finnair (Helsinki)
- Flyniki (Ibiza)
- Flynordic (Stockholm)
- Icelandair (Reykjavik)
- Iberia Airlines (Barcelona, Madrid)
- Intersky Luftfahrt (Elba)
- KLM (Amsterdam)
- KLM Cityhopper
- Nordic Regional (Palma Manorca)
- Olympic Airlines (Athens)
- SN Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
- Swiss International Airlines (Basel, Zurich)
- Voli Regionali (Venice)
- Windjet (Forli)

Hall E

Arrivals Only

Hall F

Hall F is a secure terminal used by Israeli airlines, it is a holding facility where passengers are bussed out to secure remote gates, under the guard of the border police or Bundesgrenzschutz
- Arkia (Tel Aviv)
- El Al (Tel Aviv)
- Israir (Tel Aviv)
- Sun d'Or (Tel Aviv)

Terminal Two

Terminal 2 is where all Star Alliance activity takes place, as well as Lufthansa's handling partners. It has two halls G and H (for flights to Schengen treaty member states and non-members respectively), it has 75 parking positions, 24 with airbridges, 4 for regional planes eg CRJ-700 and BAe 146, and 47 boarding stations. It was opened on 29th June 2003 and is capable of handling 20-25 million passengers per year. 26 Airlines use Terminal Two.
- Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
- Air Alps Aviation (Bolzano)
- Air Baltic (Riga, Vilnius)
- Air Canada (Toronto)
- Air China (Beijing)
- Air Dolomiti on behalf of Lufthansa CityLine
- Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
- Cimber Air (Billund)
- Cirrus Airlines (Erfurt, London-City, Ostrava, Rostock)
- Condor (Antalya, Bourgas, Dalaman, Faro, Feurteventura, Fuchal, Hurghada, Ibiza, Jerez de la Frontera, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahe Island, Malaga, Malagna, Male, Malta, Marsa Alam, Mauritius, Palma Manorca, Punta Cana, Sanat Cruz de la Palma, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife)
- Croatia Airlines (Split, Zader, Zagreb)
- Eurowings on behalf of Lufthansa CityLine
- Germanwings (Berlin-Schoenefeld, Cologne, Hamburg)
- Jat Airways (Belgrade)
- LOT Polish Airlines (Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw)
- Lufthansa (Amsterdam, Ancona, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Bari, Basil, Beijing, Belgrade, Berlin-Tegel, Bern, Birmingham, Bologna, Bordeaux, Boston, Bremen, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Cagliari, Catania, Charlotte, Chicago/O'Hare, Cologne, Copemhagen, Delhi, Donetsk, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Florence, Frankfurt, Gdansk, Geneva, Genf, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kiev, Krakow, Kuala Lumpur, Leipzig-Halle, Lisbon, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Milan-Bergamo, Milan-Malpensa, Montréal, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Muenster-Osnabruck, Naples, New York JFK, Newark, Nice, Olbia, Oslo, Paderborn, Paris, Pisa, Porto, Poznan, Prague, Rimini, Rome Fiumicino, San Francisco, Sarajevo, Shanghai, Sharm el Sheikh, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tbilisi, Tehran, Tokyo-Narita, Toulouse, Trieste, Turin, Vancouver, Venice, Warsaw, Washington Dulles, Westerland-Sylt, Wroclaw, Yerevan, Zagreb, Zurich) NB some flights may be operated by Lufthansa Regional, Lufthansa Cityline amd Privatair.
- Luxair (Luxembourg, Saarbrucken)
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen)
- Spanair
- TAP Air Portugal (Lisbon)
- Thai Airways International (Bangkok)
- United Airlines (Chicago/O'Hare, Washington Dulles)
- US Airways (Philadelphia)

Cargo Area

As well as a passenger terminal, the airport has a cargo centre, there are several airlines which use it. It is used by:
- Bluebird Cargo
- Cathay Pacific Cargo
- DHL
- Emirates Cargo
- Federal Express
- Qatar Airlines Cargo
- TNT
- Westair Sweden

Future Destinations

In the future, Cathay Pacific may have scheduled flights to Munich. However, a date has not been set for these flights.

External links


- [http://www.munich-airport.de/EN/ Franz Josef Strauß International Airport Homepage]
- [http://www.munich-to-vienna-via-salzburg.com/munich/airport.html Munich Airport Overview], Local Guide on the airport of Munich and Bavaria
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.351860,11.780949&spn=0.066047,0.113503&t=k&hl=en Satellite photo (maps.google.com)] Category:Transport in Munich Category:Airports in Germany ja:ミュンヘン国際空港

Zurich Airport

Zurich International Airport also called Kloten Airport, is located at in Kloten, canton of Zurich, Switzerland and managed by Unique Airport. It is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway and hub to Swiss International Air Lines. In 2003, Zurich International completed a major expansion project in which it built a new parking garage, a new midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to move passengers between the existing terminal complex and the new terminal. Zurich International lost traffic when Swissair shut down its operations. When Crossair swallowed Swissair and emerged as Swiss International Air Lines, traffic grew again.

Airlines


- Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
- Aeroflot (Moscow/Sheremetyevo)
- Aerolineas Argentinas (Buenos Aires and Madrid)
- Aer Lingus (Dublin)
- Air Alps (Linz Blue)
- Air Cairo (Hurghada and Sharm el Sheik)
- Air Canada (Delhi, Toronto)
- Air Berlin (Berlin/Tegel, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Palma Mallorca)
- Air Malta (Malta)
- Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
- Air Nostrum (Barcelona)
- Air France (Lyon and Paris/CDG)
- Airnautic AG
- Albanian Airlines (Tirana/Rinas)
- Alitalia (Milan/Malpensa and Rome/Fiumicino)
- Alpliner
- American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth and New York/JFK)
- Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
- BB Heli AG
- Belair (Calgary, Catania, Djerbe, Heraklion, Lanzarote, Las Vegas, Palma Mallorca, Rodas Diagoras, Samos, Vancouver)
- B&H Airlines (Banja Luka and Sarajevo)
- British Airways (London/Gatwick and London/Heathrow)
- British Airways Citiexpress (Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester (UK))
- Bulgaria Air (Sofia)
- Cirrus Airlines (Dresden)
- City Airline (Gothenburg)
- CGS Customer Ground Service
- Continental Airlines (Newark)
- Croatia Airlines (Split, Zadar, Zagreb)
- Cyprus Airways (Larnaka)
- Czech Airlines (Prague)
- Dauair (Dortmund)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
- Denim Air (Bologna, Florence, Venice)
- Edelweiss Air AG (Cancun, Djerba, Holguin, Kos, Larnaca, Mikonos, Monaster, Palma Mallorca, Puerto Plata, Santorini Thira, Thessaloniki, Varadero)
- El Al (Tel Aviv)
- Emirates (Dubai)
- European Air Express (Munich and Münster)
- Finnair (Helsinki)
- Flybaboo (Geneva)
- Fly Air (Istanbul)
- Fly Niki (Vienna)
- Freebird Airlines (Antalya)
- Germanwings (Köln/Cologne)
- Hahn Air
- Hamburg International (Munich and Pristina)
- Helvetic Airways (Alicante, Alghero/Fertilla, Balaton/Lake Balaton, Barcelona, Brindisi, Catania, Heraklion, Lemezia Terme, London/Luton, Luxor, Madrid, Malaga, Male, Naples, Neapel, Nice, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Prague, Pristina, Rome/Fiumicino, Sharm el Sheikh, Skopje, Valencia, Varna)
- Iberia (Madrid)
- ISS Aviation
- Japan Airlines (Tokyo/Narita)
- Jat Airways (Belgrade)
- Jet Aviation Handling
- KLM (Amsterdam)
- Korean Air (Seoul/Incheon)
- LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
- Lufthansa (Berlin/Tegel, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich)
- Macedonian (Ohrid and Skopje)
- Maersk Air (Copenhagen)
- Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
- Malev (Budapest)
- MNG Airlines (Antalya)
- Montenegro Airlines (Belgrade, Nis, Podgorica, Tivat)
- Onur Air (Antalya, Istanbul, Izmir)
- Ostfriesische Luftransport (Bremen)
- Pagesus Airlines (Antalya)
- Portugalia Airlines (Porto Francisco)
- Protectas Aviation Security
- Pulkovo Aviation (St. Petersberg (RU))
- Qatar Airways (Doha)
- Royal Air Maroc (Casablanca and Marrakech)
- Royal Jordanian (Amman, Geneva, Paris/Orly)
- Scandinavian Airlines Systems (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm)
- Singapore Airlines (Singapore and Manchester (UK))
- Skyeurope Airlines (Bratislava)
- Skyguide
- South African Airways (Johannesburg)
- Styrian Spirit (Graz, Ibiza, Klagenfurt, Krakow, Salzberg)
- Sun Express (Antalya)
- Swiss International Airlines (Alicante, Amsterdam, Antalya, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Basel, Beijing, Belgrade, Benghazi, Berlin/Tegel, Birmingham (UK), Boston, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Burghas, Cairo, Chicago/O'Hare, Copenhagen, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Dubai, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Feurteventura, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hanover, Hong Kong, Hurghada, Istanbul, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Kohn, Lima, Lisbon, London/City, London/Heathrow, Los Angeles, Lugano, Luxembourg, Madrid, Malabo, Malaga, Manchester (UK), Manila, Marseille, Miami, Milan/Malpensa, Mombasa, Montreal, Moscow/Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Münster/Osnabrück, Muscat, Nairobi, New York/JFK, Newark, Nice, Nuremberg, Palma de Mallorca, Paris/CDG, Prague, Pristina, Riyadh, Rome/Fiumicino, St. Petersburg (RU), Sao Paulo, Sharm el Sheikh, Singapore, Sion, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Tokyo/Narita, Tripoli, Valencia, Varna, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Yaounde)
- Swissport
- TAM
- TAP Air Portugal (Lisbon)
- Tarom (Bucharest)
- Thai Airways International (Bangkok)
- Turkish Airlines (Ankara and Istanbul)
- Ukraine International (Kiev)
- United Airlines (Chicago/O'Hare and Washington/Dulles)
- Volare Airlines In the future, the Hong Kong based airline, Cathay Pacific, plans to fly to Zurich from its main hub, Hong Kong International Airport. Zurich Airport is on the line Zurich-Winterthur-St. Gallen with rail service from Swiss Federal Railways to SBB Rail Station in Basel and Mulhouse, France, Bern Rail Station in Bern, Lausanne Rail Station in Lausanne, and Lucerne Rail Station in Lucerne.

External links


- http://www.zurich-airport.com/
- [http://www.zrhwiki.ch/ ZRHwiki] with free knowledge on Zurich International Airport (German)
- [http://www.numlink.com/ZRH Satellite image] Category:Airports in Switzerland ja:チューリヒ国際空港

Star Alliance

Launched on May 14, 1997, the Star Alliance was the first, and remains the largest airline alliance in the world, with the following points of cooperation among its partner airlines:
- Frequent flyer program integration allows airline miles to be earned and redeemed on all members of the Alliance at the same level
- Premium customers of the alliance have access to all members' airport lounges.
- Flight schedules are coordinated to permit almost seamless travel which may include several different carriers within the alliance, on a single ticket
- Special fares for round-the-world and similar travel on alliance members offer discounts over booking individual itineraries
- Customer service processes are harmonized in an effort to promote a consistent experience
- Cooperation in development of a common information technology platform This tight cooperation led to suspicions of anti-competitive behavior, and the alliance was investigated by the European Union as a virtual merger of its members. Indeed, some speculated that if government regulations were relaxed, the members would merge into a single corporation, although no evidence has yet materialized. The creation of the Star Alliance sparked the formation of rivals, notably oneworld and SkyTeam. SkyTeam Star Alliance now serves over 790 airports in 139 countries. This will be expanded to 16930 daily flights to 846 destinations in 151 countries with South African Airways and Swiss International Air Lines joining in the near future. The figure also includes the new US Airways, which reached a merger deal with America West in May 2005. Its market share is 28%, including US Airways-America West Airlines, based on the RPK. The alliance developed the "regional" concept in 2004, which helps the alliance to penetrate individual markets through regional carriers, which requires sponsorship from existing members. Star Alliance was voted best airline alliance in the 2005 World Airline Awards for the second time in three years.

Membership History


- 1997 - Founded by Air Canada, United Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines System and Thai Airways. Varig joins the alliance.
- 1999 - Ansett Australia, All Nippon Airways, and Air New Zealand become members.
- 2000 - Singapore Airlines, bmi (British Midland), Mexicana, and the Austrian Airlines group, comprising Austrian Airlines, Tyrolean, and Lauda Air join the alliance.
- 2001 - Ansett Australia closed due to bankruptcy after a failed acquisition strategy by Air New Zealand from former joint owner News Corporation.
- 2003 - Asiana Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, and Spanair join.
- 2004 - US Airways joins the alliance. Mexicana's membership ends. Adria Airways, Croatia Airlines, Blue1 inaugurate the alliance's regional network.
- 2005 - TAP Portugal joins the alliance. America West Airlines acquires US Airways and merges itself into the larger carrier, which will remain a Star Alliance member.

Members

Starting in 2004, Star Alliance has divided its member airlines into full members and regional members, who must be sponsored by a full member.

Full members


- Air Canada [http://www.aircanada.com]
- Air New Zealand [http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz]
- All Nippon Airways [http://www.anaskyweb.com] (also known by the abbreviation ANA)
- Asiana Airlines [http://us.flyasiana.com/]
- Austrian Airlines [http://www.aua.com/us]
- bmi (British Midland) [http://www.flybmi.com]
- LOT Polish Airlines [http://www.lot.com]
- Lufthansa [http://www.lufthansa.com]
- Scandinavian Airlines System [http://www.scandinavian.net/]
- Singapore Airlines [http://www.singaporeair.com]
- Spanair [http://www.spanair.com]
- TAP Portugal [http://www.tap-airportugal.pt/eportal/v10/EN/jsp/index.jsp]
- Thai Airways International [http://www.thaiairways.com]
- United Airlines [http://www.united.com]
- US Airways [http://www.usair.com]
- Varig [http://www.varig.com]

Regional members


- Adria Airways [http://www.adria-airways.com/index.asp?l=en&p=qb&m=0] — sponsored by Lufthansa
- Blue1 [http://www.blue1.com] — sponsored by SAS
- Croatia Airlines [http://www.croatiaairlines.com] — sponsored by Lufthansa

Former members


- Ansett Australia — liquidated in 2001
- Mexicana — left alliance in 2004 after deciding not to renew a codeshare alliance with United Airlines and opted to codeshare with oneworld's American Airlines.

Future members


- America West Airlines [http://www.americawest.com] will merge with US Airways in the next three years, with network integration starting 2nd-Half of 2005. The merged carrier will still operate under the US Airways title.
- South African Airways [http://www.flysaa.com] will join in 2006
- Swiss International Airlines [http://www.swiss.com] will join 2006

Possible Future Members


- airBaltic (regional), to be sponsored by SAS
- Estonian Air (regional), to be sponsored by SAS
- Silk Air (regional), to be sponsored by Singapore Airlines
- Shanghai Airlines (regional), the Shanghai-based carrier expressed its interest to join
- Air China, currently partnered with ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, and United Airlines, the airline's chairman attended the alliance's meeting in Nagoya on June 2, 2005. Star Alliance is exploring more opportunities to recruit "regional" members.

Premium Status

Star Alliance has two premium levels, Silver and Gold, based on a customer's tier status in a member carrier's frequent flyer program. Each of the member and regional airlines recognizes Star Silver/Gold status, with a few exceptions (mainly pertaining to airport lounge access). The statuses have no specific requirements of their own; membership is based solely on the frequent flyer programs of individual member airlines.

Star Alliance Silver

Star Alliance Silver status is awarded to customers who have reached the premium level of a member carrier's frequent flyer program. Benefits of Star Alliance Silver membership:
- Priority Reservations Waitlisting
- Priority Airport Standby Some carriers also offer the following to Silver members:
- Priority Boarding
- Priority Airport Check In
- Preferred Seating
- Additional Checked Luggage Allowance
- Airport Lounge Access Membership tiers granting Star Alliance Silver:
- Air Canada (Aeroplan) - Prestige
- Air New Zealand (Airpoints) - Silver
- ANA (Mileage Club) - Bronze
- Asiana (Asiana Club) - Gold
- Austrian/LOT/Lufthansa (Miles & More) - Frequent Traveler
- bmi (Diamond Club) - Silver
- SAS (EuroBonus) - Silver
- Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) - Silver
- Spanair (Spanair Plus) - Silver
- TAP (Victoria) - Silver Winner
- Thai (Royal Orchid Plus) - Silver
- United (Mileage Plus) - Premier
- US Airways (Dividend Miles) - Silver Preferred
- Varig (Smiles) - Silver

Star Alliance Gold

Star Alliance Gold status is awarded to customers who have reached the higher premium level of a member carrier's frequent flyer program.Varig Benefits of Star Alliance Gold membership:
- Priority Reservations Waitlisting
- Priority Airport Standby
- Priority Boarding
- Priority Airport Check In
- Priority Baggage Handling
- Additional Checked Luggage Allowance
- Airport Lounge Access Some carriers also offer the following to Gold members:
- Preferred Seating Membership tiers granting Star Alliance Gold:
- Air Canada (Aeroplan) - Super Elite, Elite
- Air New Zealand (Airpoints) - Gold Elite, Gold
- ANA (Mileage Club) - Diamond, Platinum, Super Flyers
- Asiana (Asiana Club) - Platinum, Diamond
- Austrian/LOT/Lufthansa (Miles & More) - HON Circle, Senator
- bmi (Diamond Club) - Gold
- SAS (EuroBonus) - Pandion, Gold
- Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) - Solitaire PPS Club, PPS Club, Elite Gold
- Spanair (Spanair Plus) - Gold
- TAP (Victoria) - Gold Winner
- Thai (Royal Orchid Plus) - Gold
- United (Mileage Plus) - Premier Executive 1K, Premier Executive
- US Airways (Dividend Miles) - Chairman's Preferred, Platinum Preferred, Gold Preferred
- Varig (Smiles) - Diamond, Gold Currently the lowest qualification criteria for a Star Alliance Gold status is 35,000 status miles earned during calendar year with [https://www.aeroplan.com/en/collect/collect_status_miles.jsp Air Canada's Aeroplan program] awarding a status valid for one year from March of the next year. Alternatively 50,000 qualification miles during a calendar year in [http://www.thaiairways.com/Royal_Orchid_Plus/Status_Benefits/Status_benefits.htm Thai Airways Royal Orchard Plus program] awards a status with two years of validity.

Destinations

See Star Alliance Destinations

See also


- oneworld
- SkyTeam

External links


- [http://www.staralliance.com/ Star Alliance] - Official site
- [http://www.staralliance.jp/ Star Alliance Japan] - Japanese Website
- [http://www.staralliance.com/star_alliance/star/content/SA_gold_member.html Star Alliance Gold Lounges] - Outline of Lounges welcoming Star Alliance Gold members [including exceptions] on the Star Alliance website
- [http://www.staralliance.com/star_alliance/star/content/lounge_access.html Official Star Alliance Reciprocal Lounge Access Rules] on the Star Alliance website
- [http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=413 Star Alliance Forum on Flyertalk]
- [http://members.shaw.ca/deercroft/starall.html Comparison Chart of Star Alliance Gold status's]
- ko:스타 얼라이언스 ja:スターアライアンス

Berlin

:This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation).

Basic Information

, IPA: , is the capital of Germany and its largest city; the city is now home to 3.4 million residents, down from a peak of 4.5 million before World War II. From 1949 to 1990 it was divided into East Berlin and West Berlin. Berlin, built on sand, is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the north of Germany. It is enclosed by the German state of Brandenburg, and has constituted a state of its own since 1920.

Political Berlin

The state

Berlin originally was a main city in the Duchy of Brandenburg. Today, it is the national capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, and was expanded to form Greater Berlin in 1920. Since German reunification on 3 October 1990 it has been one of the three city states, together with Hamburg and Bremen, among the present 16 German Bundesländer. Berlin is governed by the Senate of Berlin, which consists of the Regierender Bürgermeister (governing mayor) and up to eight senators holding ministerial portfolios. The governing mayor is mayor of the city and representative of the Bundesland (state) at the same time. The seat of office for the Berlin Mayor is the Rotes Rathaus. Presently, this office is held by Klaus Wowereit (SPD): for earlier mayors, see the list of Mayors of Berlin. The city and state parliament is called the Abgeordnetenhaus or House of Representatives. The current Senate consists of a coalition of the social democrat SPD and the socialist Left Party.

The boroughs

Left Party Berlin is subdivided into 12 boroughs, called Bezirke, which were created from the previously existing 23 boroughs, effective since 1 January 2001. For a map and a list of the old and new borough names, see Boroughs of Berlin. Each borough is governed by a Bezirksamt consisting of ten Stadträte (town councillors) and a mayor. The Bezirksamt is elected by the district-parliament, the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung. The boroughs of Berlin are not independent municipalities, and the political power of the district-parliaments is fairly minimal and dependent on the Senate of Berlin. The district mayors form the council of mayors, called Rat der Bürgermeister under the leadership of the Regierende Bürgermeister (governing mayor), to advise the Senate.

Population

Berlin has 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005) on a surface of 891.75 square kilometres, thus, the population density of the region amounts to 3,811 inhabitants per square kilometre. Berlin citizens' average age is 41.7 years (as of 2004). 450,900 inhabitants are foreigners coming from 185 states (as of December 2004). Among them, approximately 36,000 citizens come from the nearest neighbouring country, Poland and 119,000 are Turkish - Berlin has the largest Turkish municipality in Europe outside of Turkey. According to official statistics, in 2004, 22.3% of the population were Protestants, 9.1% were Catholics, 6.2% were Muslims, and 0.4% were Jews. Between approximately the 1890s and the mid-1920s, Berlin was the fourth-largest urban area in the world after New York, London, and Paris. Today, it is only the sixth-largest urban area in the European Union, and approximately the 80th-largest urban area in the world.

History

Berlin today

Tourist attractions

urban area in the European Union Even though Berlin does have a number of impressive buildings from earlier centuries, the city's appearance today is mainly shaped by the key role it played in Germany's history in the 20th century. Each of the national governments which had their seat in Berlin — the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and now the reunified Germany — initiated ambitious construction programs, each with its own distinctive character. Berlin was devastated by bombing raids during World War II, and many of the old buildings that escaped the bombs were eradicated in the 1950s and 1960s in both West and East. Much of this destruction was caused by overambitious architecture programs, especially to build new residential or business quarters and main roads. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no other city in the world offers Berlin's unusual mix of architecture, especially 20th-century architecture. The city's tense and unique recent history has left it with a distinctive array of sights. Not much is left of the Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke over the Spree preserves a portion of the Wall. By looking at the architecture it is still possible to tell if one is in the former eastern or western part of the city. In the eastern part, many Plattenbauten can be found, reminders of Eastern Bloc ambitions to create complete residential areas with fixed ratios of shops, kindergartens and schools. Another difference between former east and west is in the design of little red and green men on pedestrian crossing lights (Ampelmännchen in German); the eastern versions received an opt-out during the standardization of road traffic signs after re-unification, and have survived to become a popular icon in tourist products. They are however starting to appear in western Berlin too.

Historical sights in the city centre

Ampelmännchen Ampelmännchen
- The Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden, symbols of Berlin, Prussia, and now Germany. The Brandenburg Gate appears on German Euro coins.
- Reichstag building, the old and new seat of the German parliament, renovated by Sir Norman Foster. Features a glass dome in which you can walk around and watch the parliamentarians from above.
- Gendarmenmarkt, arguably the most beautiful square in Berlin, surrounded by two famous cathedrals and the concert hall.
- Berlin victory column, monument to Prussia's victories.
- The Berliner Dom, an historic cathedral. A large crypt houses the remains of the Prussian royal family.
- Cathedral of St. Hedwig (St.-Hedwigs-Kathedrale)
- Nikolaiviertel with the Nikolaikirche an