Lufthansa received the go-ahead to build a maintenance hangar to handle the Airbus A380 superjumbo at Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday.

The administrative court of Kassel, in Germany, rejected opposition to the project from local authorities and environmental groups, upholding the state of Hesse's approval of the planned building last November.

Construction of the hangar will be able to start as scheduled in the autumn. The court called for an additional report to be prepared on noise, but this was not expected to delay the project.

Lufthansa needs the hangar to be ready for when it takes delivery of the first of 15 A380s, due in the autumn of 2007. The carrier will be among the first customers to start operating the world's largest passenger airliner.