Friedrichshafen, 20.11.2008 – The Bodensee Airport in Friedrichshafen is located just a few kilometers away from Lake Constance, in a beautiful region where the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland come to-
gether.

The airport is the southernmost commercial airport in Germany and is at the same time one of the oldest: After the first of Count Zeppelin’s airships began lifting off in 1900 from a floating platform in Lake Constance for test flights, the first Zeppelin hangar was built at the present location in 1915, marking the beginning of the quickly developing airport.

The geographical location in the border region of Ger-
many, Austria and Switzerland is reflected in many ways at the Bodensee Airport: The local air traffic controllers are employees of the Austrian air traffic control company Austro Control and work with systems of the Swiss air traffic control company Skyguide. And Intersky Airlines, which proudly claims the Bodensee Airport as its home

The Bodensee Airport in Friedrichshafen is the southernmost commercial airport in Germany and is at the same time one of the oldest: As early as 1915, airships took off regularly from here to all parts of the world – Today approximately 670.000 passengers are served annually

VOLK Diesel Platform Trucks are optimally designed for the needs of regional airports and thus enjoy growing popularity

lines and one-third on charter flights. Of the latter, in-
coming traffic showed significant growth: The ski re-
gions in the upper Allgäu, in Vorarlberg and Tyrol are not far away and are thus popular destinations in the rapidly growing ski-charter business. The largest proportion of winter tourists come from Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Since the direct proximity to Lake Constance often brings thick fog during the winter season, it is especially ad-
vantageous that the airport has a modern instrument landing system. Heading for ski recreation is thus pos-
sible even with a visibility of less than 100 meters.

To transport the luggage, the Bodensee Airport uses VOLK Diesel Platform Trucks of the type DFW 2. These have a payload of 2.000 kg and a spacious loading area. With dimensions of 2.500 mm x 1.250 mm, the loading area offers plenty of space even for ski equipment and other bulky luggage. The slightly prism-shaped contour

Vehicles of the type DFW 2 are used primarily at regional airports: For servicing smaller airplanes, more than one or two luggage trailers are seldom needed. Often just the spacious loading area of the vehicle is sufficient. Heavy tractor trucks with a curb weight of three or four tons, as are often found at larger airports, are thus not necessary for regional air traffic.

In addition, the baggage handling areas at smaller air-
ports tend to be structured openly, so that vehicles driven by internal combustion engines can enter without any problems. Diesel vehicles can thus play up their specific strengths here:

In comparison to electric-powered vehicles, diesel ve-
hicles have a practically unlimited range and do not re-
quire time-consuming battery management, and in
com-parison to technologically sophisticated hybrid ve-
hicles, the significantly lower procurement costs are a big plus. Because of these advantages, VOLK Diesel

The Lufthansa subsidiary Cityline offers three daily connections between Friedrichshafen and Frankfurt am Main – The Bombardier CRJ 200 jet has over 50 seats and is considered a typical regional airplane