Annual Report 2012 (PDF) - Hamburg

Sustainable community responsibility
Engagement in the community and the region
The Hamburg Airport Group has been engaged in open and respectful dialog with
stakeholders and interest groups for many decades, and this dialog will remain an important
element of external communications in the years ahead. The success of northern
Germany’s largest airport is also closely interconnected with sustainable and transparent
public relations and community work. For that reason, 2013 will again be guided
by the principle: “We inform the public and the media about the development of our airport,
we maintain open dialog and are active in our community.”
Active community work
The airport is a good neighbour and plays its part in the
community with many projects, initiatives, clubs and associations.
Manfred Czub, who has been Community Officer
for many years, and his team keep in touch with the public
at community festivals, cultural and sporting events and
other functions, talking about the airport, answering questions
and taking note of requests from the airport’s neighbours,
young and old. The Hamburg Airport Infomobil is active
at around 35 events per year.
Hamburg Airport has been a sponsor of the “Jugend
musiziert” (“youth make music”) project for a number of
years. “Young talent is unbelievably important – not just
within Hamburg Airport as a workplace, but for the community
as a whole. This is why Hamburg Airport sponsors
the outstanding cultural achievements of these young musicians,”
explains Manfred Czub. The concert at “Kulturwerk
am See” in Norderstedt in 2012 gave the artists a platform
to present their talents to the north German public.
It is particularly important to engage the airport’s neighbours
in ongoing and transparent dialog about environmental
impact and aircraft noise. To this end, the Neighbourhood
Council, an initiative of the airport, meets twice
a year. Representatives of the various neighbourhood and
community interests are present to discuss current issues
and developments at the airport. “The open and often
friendly dialog with our neighbours is very important to us.
Over the years, we have created a respectful way of working
together. This transparency has meant that a lot of resentment
and strife could be avoided. For an inner city airport
with more than 150,000 take-offs and landings per
year, this really is something to be proud of,” reports Czub.
And on paper, too, Hamburg Airport is hard at work for the
community: the quarterly “Hamburg Flughafen” community
newspaper, now in its 15th year, is distributed free of
charge to local residents and keeps them up to date with
news about the airport and their city.
Political representation of interests
For six years now, Hamburg Airport’s Executive Board has
met with representatives from the world of politics, from
associations and from regulatory authorities to discuss current
developments in the aviation industry at the annual
“Political Evening”. Responsibility and sustainability of the
airport are also one of the major subjects at the Supervisory
Board meetings, which take place four times each year.
The Hamburg Airport Group’s political activities, however,
are restricted to information and issues. There are absolutely
no financial contributions to political parties.
Hamburg Airport works together closely with aviation
industry associations. Since 2012, Hamburg Airport has
been working together intensely with the German Airports
Association (ADV) and the German Aerospace Industries
Association (BDL) to achieve the revocation of Germany’s
economically destructive Aviation Tax. This work will continue
in 2013.
In terms of political decisions at the European level, too,
the Hamburg Airport Group is in close contact with representatives
of political and industry association interests to
promote a sustainable aviation economy in Germany. The
important issues with which Hamburg Airport will critically
engage in 2013 include the unilateral emissions trading
completely introduced in 2012. This forced many airlines to
close last year along with the planned further liberalisation
of the ground handling services market, which will expose
existing and currently safe jobs to the risk of wage dumping.
Dialog with the media
Issues relating to Hamburg Airport attract broad public interest,
regionally and nationally. An informative and straightforward
press website is therefore essential. A new press
portal will therefore go online in 2013. Representatives
of various media will have access to a platform providing
transparent information on the central interests and developments
of the company, further expanding the Ham-
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