Michael Kerkloh

Munich Airport’s “chief pilot”

Dr. Michael Kerkloh has been at the helm of FMG, the Munich Airport operating company, since September 2002. He is FMG’s president and CEO, and also serves as the company’s labor director. Born and raised in Ahlen in the Wesphalia region of western Germany, Kerkloh completed secondary school and military service before attending university in Göttingen, London and Frankfurt. He completed a degree in economics in 1979 and until 1985 held a lectureship in economic policy at the University of Frankfurt, where he also completed a doctorate in political science.

In 1995, Dr. Michael Kerkloh was appointed to the management team of Hamburg Airport. During his seven years as a member of the management team in Hamburg, Dr. Michael Kerkloh played a key role in the successful development of Hamburg Airport. The restructuring model driven forward with great personal commitment by Kerkloh became known in the industry as the “Hamburg model”, and was instrumental in significantly boosting the profitability and productivity of the company.

Under Kerkloh’s leadership Munich Airport has firmly established itself in the rankings of Europe’s major air transportation hubs. With a total of 34 million passengers in 2007, Munich grew above the industry average with 10.4% more passenger traffic than in the previous year. Munich has been awarded "Best Airport in Europe" for the fourth year in a row and was chosen as fifth best airport worldwide in the Skytrax "Airport Awards 2008" survey of over 8 million passengers from around the world.