Following an intense selection process, there is a new face at the head of Leipzig/Halle Airport. Dierk Näther becomes the new managing director of the subsidiary of the Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding on 1 December 2008. The 41-year-old succeeds Eric Malitzke, who is leaving the company at his own request and moving to DHL.

Dierk Näther has been Managing Director of PortGround GmbH, the ground services provider and freight handling company at Leipzig/Halle and Dresden Airports since it was set up in 2001. He will continue to manage both companies until a new managing director is appointed at PortGround.

Markus Kopp, CEO of the Central German Airports Group and chairman of the shareholders at Leipzig/Halle Airport, said: »In Dierk Näther, we have managed to get hold of an accomplished manager and market expert from our own ranks. He combines local colour and outstanding contacts with airlines and logistics companies. I am sure that Dierk Näther and the team at Leipzig/Halle Airport will continue to pursue the successful course, which the airport has been following since the early 1990s. He has already shown in the past that he can meet the enormous challenges of our business in a professional manner. Under his leadership, PortGround has become an important example of customer orientation at Leipzig/Halle and Dresden Airports.«

After completing his studies as a graduate in transport engineering at Dresden University of Technology, the native of Leipzig, Dierk Näther, began his professional career in the traffic planning and transport economics department at Hamburg airport in 1993. After working in the transport analysis department at the Hamburg Transport Association, he moved to work as a transport engineer in the product and resource planning department at Leipzig/Halle Airport in 1995 and was responsible for this unit for five years. He acted as interim Managing Director at Flughafen Dresden GmbH from July 2001 until March 2002.

»My new job at Leipzig/Halle Airport is a huge challenge and I am looking forward to playing a major role in actively shaping ongoing developments at the location, which is an established air freight hub of European importance and the airport in my home region,« said Dierk Näther, the newly appointed Managing Director at Flughafen Leipzig/Halle GmbH and PortGround GmbH.

The Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding is the trade name for Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, a public sector company. The following companies are part of the group: Leipzig/Halle Airport, Dresden International Airport, PortGround and EasternAirCargo.
Turnover at the group in 2007 totalled € 112.8 million. The airports handled 87,123 flights, 4.58 million passengers and 114,225 tonnes of freight. The group directly employs 962 members of staff and trainees. Approx. 6,600 people work at various companies and public bodies located at the Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG sites.