Airport on course for growth and modernisation
The Supervisory Board of Flughafen Dortmund GmbH met today for its third regular meeting of 2026. Airport Managing Director Ludger van Bebber reported on the current business performance and provided an outlook on upcoming issues and projects.
The Supervisory Board was briefed on the updated passenger forecast for the German aviation sector issued by the German Airports Association (ADV). In view of persistently high regulatory costs at airports, rising jet fuel prices and the continuing volatility of the economic and geopolitical landscape, the association has revised its forecast for 2026 downwards to 217 million passengers. This is expected to represent a year-on-year decline of 1.4 per cent. The airport supports the ADV’s strong calls for a significant reduction in government-imposed location costs and regards such relief as crucial to safeguarding the long-term competitiveness and connectivity of Germany as an aviation hub. Despite challenging conditions, Dortmund Airport is sticking to its forecast of up to 3.5 million passengers for the year as a whole. By the end of August, around 2.3 million passengers had passed through the airport, representing an increase of 7.9 per cent compared with the same period in 2025. At the same time, August was the busiest month in the airport’s history, with over 360,000 passengers. Eight new routes, a record summer holiday season and the introduction of larger aircraft provide a promising foundation for continued growth in the second half of the year.
The modernisation of passenger screening points was also discussed at the meeting. Under the responsibility of the Münster District Government, plans to equip passenger and hand luggage screening points with modern CT scanners are being taken forward. Once the new rules are fully in place, liquids and electronic devices will no longer need to be removed from hand luggage separately; they may remain inside it during security checks. In order to adapt the infrastructure to the technological and regulatory requirements of the new equipment, the airport is planning a comprehensive refurbishment of the existing security checkpoints. The use of CT technology is intended to almost double the throughput at security checkpoints, reduce waiting times for passengers and, at the same time, improve passenger comfort. A final date for implementation has not yet been set.
