The A380 will bring relief for the air transportation hub FRA

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is the most important hub in passenger air transportation in Europe, beside London-Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulles. More than half of FRA's 54 million passengers per year are transfers. They connect mainly between intercontinental flights (from North and South America as well as the Far East) and onward flights and high-speed rail services to destinations in Germany, Europe and other parts of the world.

Thus FRA is a pivotal point that links the better part of intra-European air services with long-haul overseas flights. This hub function (in trade lingo "hub and spokes" system) makes economic and ecologic sense. Passengers from other parts of Germany and from throughout Europe with overseas destinations fly into Frankfurt on short and medium haul services, make their transfers here, and head out to destinations outside Europe on long-haul flights.

Compared to a costly air service network featuring direct flights between numerous individual destinations, the hub-and-spokes system allows for bundling passenger volumes and reducing total air travel distances. This protects the environment and is cheaper.

Because of FRA's hub function, airline departure and landing slots at FRA are in strong demand.

The new A380 offers a certain relief potential: Designed for use in intercontinental transportation, the A380 can carry noticeably more passengers on a single trip than any other aircraft type in service so far (featuring about 555 seats in a three-class configuration).