The new arrival hall at Munich-Riem Airport, which was put into operation on April 21, 1971, was a ground floor, low-rise building made of reinforced concrete / prefabricated construction; the building costs for the hall were around 5.6 million DM.

The new arrival hall was part of the so-called bridging measures at Munich Airport, which were completed in their entirety in spring 1972. From 1972 onwards, between 5.5 and 6 million passengers could be handled annually at Munich-Riem Airport. Before that, the handling capacity was around 3 million passengers a year, with around 3.5 million passengers having to pass through the handling facilities as early as 1970, some of them with considerable operational difficulties.

As a result of the limited useful life of the new buildings, during the construction planning, which was in the hands of Dept. Building Construction 2 of the City of Munich's Building Department, the aim was to carry out the bridging measures from the point of view of the greatest economic efficiency, as well as the possibility of a later simple dismantling of the halls .

New for passengers and collectors

The commissioning of the arrival hall resulted in a "new concept" for the handling systems in Munich-Riem: Departures and arrivals were housed in separate building complexes. Since then, the previous main airport building has only been used to handle departing passengers.

Domestic - international arrival area

Passengers arriving from abroad went through passport control after entering the arrival hall and into the international baggage claim area. There the passengers practically took their luggage from the output belts in passing and reached the collection area after customs control. Passengers arriving from the inland had an even shorter route in the future than before. Immediately after arriving in the arrivals hall, they went to the pick-up area. For domestic passengers with luggage - experience shows that every second domestic passenger has luggage with them - the baggage claim area was in the western part of the arrival hall.

Nine triangular, circumferential baggage claim belts were installed in the baggage claim area, four of them on the domestic side and five on the international side. The system for the baggage claim corresponded to the latest state of the art. Until the completion of the connecting building in March 1972, passengers transferring after the passport, customs and security checks in the eastern part of the arrival hall were transported by buses to the transit room in the main building.

Information system

Particular importance was attached to the clarity through new information signs. In terms of color and design, this corresponded to the guidelines recommended in the book of standards on “Pictograms for orientation at airports”. The standards book was published by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen (ADV) with the aim of achieving the most uniform information signage possible at German airports.

So-called pictograms were used for the signage, which were developed by the ADV and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). A pictorial representation of the information board was intended to enable quick orientation and avoid language difficulties. As expected, other organizations such as B. the Committee for the Organization of the Summer Olympic Games in Munich and the trade fair companies of the German trade fair cities have adopted these pictograms. The information signs in the new arrival hall were largely made of light boxes, with the signs relating to the operational sequence in yellow and the signs indicating passenger service in green.

Customs clearance

The two-channel customs clearance system at Munich-Riem Airport was new. The route through customs was clearly marked with green and red signs. In this way, passengers with goods that did not require registration could freely pass the green exits, although they had to reckon with random samples. The red exits, on the other hand, are reserved for passengers with goods that have to be registered. This two-channel customs clearance system, which has been tried and tested at domestic and foreign airports, is still used today at many airports to speed up customs clearance. The airlines informed the passengers of the new customs clearance system via the on-board loudspeaker when they landed. In addition, customs distributed relevant leaflets to the passengers on their arrival in the hall.

Pick-up area

The pick-up area in the arrival hall covered around 900 square meters and had around 200 seats. In addition to various shops, a post office, a bank, offices and counter boxes for scheduled and charter airlines and car rental companies were set up.

Right of way and parking spaces

The right of way in front of the arrival hall was possible on two streets next to each other, whereby the sidewalks were covered over the entire length of the arrival hall. The newly created parking spaces in the arrival hall area had 264 short-term and around 1,700 medium-term and long-term parking spaces available for passengers and those collecting them. In addition, 100 new taxi and 23 bus parking stands were created.

Technical data of the arrival hall

Floor space:	8000 sqm
Height:	4.75 m
Length:	136 m
Width:	61 m