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Fraport agreed to pay chemical group Celanese EUR650 million (USD$858 million) to move a chemical plant that had threatened its plans for a much-needed fourth runway at Frankfurt Airport.

Celanese's Ticona unit had pledged to fight the building of a new runway near its plant, saying the risk of a plane crash violated a European directive to avoid chemical catastrophes.

Under the agreement struck with Fraport, Ticona would end production at its Kelsterbach plant, near the site for the new landing strip, at the end of June 2011.

Land needed for the project would be transferred to Fraport once a final deal was signed, while the whole area now used by Ticona would be handed over to Fraport by 2015.

«With the conclusion of the final contracts Celanese/Ticona will rescind its objections and legal claims» relating to the airport expansion, Fraport said.

«This will eliminate an essential risk for the timely start of operations of the northwest landing runway.»

Fraport is constrained by capacity bottlenecks at Frankfurt Airport and has to rely increasingly on passengers spending more at its airport shops, restaurants and car parks as well as on its airport security services business to boost earnings.

The company has said it expects the number of passengers passing through Frankfurt to rise by only about 1 percent this year from 52.2 million last year. Frankfurt has been overtaken by Paris Charles de Gaulle as Europe's second-biggest hub after London Heathrow.

Fraport Chief Executive Wilhelm Bender said in a statement the runway «must be able to go into operation in 2011», indicating a further slip in the schedule from 2010.

The planned northwest runway would increase Frankfurt's capacity by about one-third to some 80 million passengers annually.

(Reuters)