History

1980 - 1985: New prospects

1980: Domestic passenger figures had roughly doubled since 1969, and on 5th March 1980 a new terminal was opened at Hamburg Airport to cope with increasing volume of domestic traffic. Overall, though, air traffic in Germany showed a small decline of - 0.5% from the previous year's level, and 1981 the rate of decline grew to - 0.8%. The year after this, the negative trend reached - 3.2%: the difficult economic situation was having a serious effect on the aviation industry, which seemed to be on a steady downward slope.

1982: In addition to the new terminal opened in 1980, a spacious new charter terminal was now opened; as a counterpiece to the domestic building, it balanced out the whole complex of buildings, and not only architecturally. Henceforth, charter flights could be handled functionally and on the same level as scheduled flights.

1983: The 1983 holiday season brought a marked increase in both passenger and cargo volume. And Hamburg Airport had another cause for celebration in the second half of the year, when a young Norwegian woman became Fuhlsbüttel's 75 millionth passenger! Since early 1950, when Hamburg Airport passed back into German hands, 75 million passengers had passed through the airport.

1985: Further construction work was on the cards: the transfer of arrivals from Berlin to the domestic section of the airport meant that there was 50% more space waiting areas for foreign flights. Additional exits helped people leave more quickly. And passengers who wanted to buy a souvenir or a magazine, or duty-free articles, were catered for with a larger selection of more spacious shops, now self-service. In the arrivals area, two now baggage carousels meant that people didn't have to wait so long for their cases. But even after all these improvements, the airport building still wasn't equipped to cope with the crowds of passengers that the future would bring...

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