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Business Beijing Travels to Munich

Business Beijing made history recently. It now is available at the VIP and business lounges at the Munich International Airport.

"I am extremely pleased to have our magazine distributed in Europe to help businessmen and tourists know more about Beijing, its business environment and its rich culture," said Shirley Zhang, executive deputy editor of Beijing This Month Publications, the parent company of Business Beijing and its sister publication, Beijing This Month, a life and leisure magazine.

Munich Airport is pleased to be able to offer Business Beijing, in addition to a wide range of other international publications, in its lounges.

"With ever more direct flights between Munich Airport and destinations in China that means more Chinese passengers visiting our lounges who want to have access to news from back home even while they’re abroad," said Erica Gingerich, of International Media Relations, at Munich Airport. "It's obviously important for us as Europe’s eighth busiest hub airport to cater to the needs of our international passengers. And this kind of service includes providing passengers with newspapers from their own country and region, such as Business Beijing.

Within a decade of its opening on May 17, 1992, Munich Airport doubled its passenger and tripled its cargo traffic. One of Europe's top-10 airports, it is one of the fastest growing airports on the continent and is an increasingly important player in the global aviation market.

With the launch of Terminal 2 on June 29, 2003, Munich Airport met the requirements to continue its dynamic expansion.  The new facility—the biggest expansion project since the opening of the new Munich Airport—doubled the airport's annual capacity from 25 million to 50 million passengers, providing Munich much-needed terminal capacity that it will need in coming years. 

Now in operation for close to three years, the 1.5-billion-Euro Terminal 2 has proven its mettle, and is a major factor behind Munich Airport's strong growth. Munich Airport saw 6 percent growth in 2005, with 28.6 million passengers. The growth will continue, with approximately 56 million passengers expected by 2020, and with cargo expected to grow three fold in the next decade. The Summer 2005 and Winter 2005-06 schedules have brought with them strong increases in service frequencies, both on European and intercontinental routes, further boosting MunichÕs hub function and securing its status as the "Gateway to Germany" and beyond.

As a hub facility tailored to meet the specific needs of transfer traffic for Lufthansa, the Star Alliance and partners, Terminal 2 is a joint project between Munich Airport (60 percent) and Lufthansa (40 percent), and represents a true innovation in the aviation industry in that it was planned, financed, built, and is now operated jointly by the airport and the airline. Terminal 2's MCT (minimum connecting time) of only 30 minutes is a benchmark that is currently unmatched by any other international hub airport—a strong plus when you consider that within it’s first year alone, Terminal 2's share of intercontinental destinations doubled. The opening of Terminal 2 has also allowed Munich Airport to return its Terminal 1 to its original purpose, serving important point-to-point traffic that is an important component of the Munich mix.  According to Munich Airport CEO,  Michael Kerkloh. With our two highly modern terminals tailor made to serve both hub and point-to-point traffic, we're ideally positioned to compete internationally and take advantage of industry growth in the future."

China and the Far East are very attractive markets for Munich Airport, as business travel between Germany and China will indeed continue to increase in the near future.Munich Airport is no longer just a gateway to Bavaria; it is a gateway to Germany and Europe for travellers from abroad. With a strategic location at the heart of Europe and with its unique partnership with Lufthansa, Munich AirportÕs mission is to become the most efficient and most attractive large hub in Europe by 2010, a strategy that has already started to pay off in the past year.  Munich was awarded  Best Airport in Europe and was chosen fourth best airport worldwide in the Skytrax Airport Awards 2005 survey of more than five million passengers from around the world.