Frankfurt Airport ( ; ) is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airport. The airport is operated by Fraport and serves as the main hub for Lufthansa, including Lufthansa City Airlines, Lufthansa CityLine, Discover Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo as well as Condor and AeroLogic. It covers an area of of land and features three passenger terminals with capacity for approximately 65 million passengers per year; four runways; and extensive logistics and maintenance facilities.
Frankfurt Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany as well as the 6th busiest in Europe after London–Heathrow, Istanbul, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport. The airport is also the 22nd busiest worldwide by total number of passengers in 2024, with 61,564,957 passengers using the airport in 2024. It also had a freight throughput of 2.076 million tonnes in 2015 and is the busiest airport in Europe by cargo traffic. , Frankfurt Airport serves 330 destinations on five continents, making it the airport with the most direct routes in the world. 24 June 2023
The southern side of the airport ground was home to the Rhein-Main Air Base, which served as a major air base for the United States from 1947 until its closure on 31 December 2005. The US personnel moved to Ramstein Air Base (extended from 2004 to 2006). The property was acquired by Fraport and the site now occupied by the airport's Terminal 3.
Location
Frankfurt Airport lies southwest of central Frankfurt, near the Autobahn interchange Frankfurter Kreuz, where two of the most heavily used motorways in Europe (A3 and A5) meet. The airport grounds, which form a city district of Frankfurt named Frankfurt-Flughafen, are surrounded by the Frankfurt City Forest. The southern portion of the airport grounds extend partially into the towns of Rüsselsheim am Main and Mörfelden-Walldorf, and a western portion of the grounds lie within the town of Kelsterbach.
The airport is centrally located in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, Germany's third-largest metropolitan region, which itself has a central location in the densely populated region of the west-central European megalopolis. Thereby, along with a strong rail and motorway connection, the airport serves as a major transport node for the greater region, less than two hours by ground to Cologne, the Ruhr Area, and Stuttgart.
History
First airport
The Squaire
Since 2012, the people mover "The Squaire Metro" connects The Squaire with the nine-storey parking structure. On a length of about 300 metres the so-called MiniMetro system with its two cabins can carry up to 1,300 passengers per hour. The constructor of the system was the Italian manufacturer Leitner Ropeways.
The fourth runway In 2012, the website Airport Watch reported weekly protests had been occurring at the airport since the opening of a fourth runway a year previously.Airport Watch. 2012. "A sea of protest against airport expansion across Europe as a new breed of campaigner emerges." Accessed October 2019.
Developments since 2011 The new runway officially went into operation on 20 October 2011, with an aircraft carrying Chancellor Angela Merkel, performing the first landing on 21 October. The centre line separation from the existing north runway is about . This allows simultaneous instrument landing system (ILS) operations on these two runways, which has not been possible on the other parallel runways, which do not meet the minimum separation for ILS operations. This allowed the airport to increase its capacity from 83 to 126 aircraft movements per hour.
On 11 October 2011, the Hessian Administration Court ruled that night flights between 11pm and 5am (the so-called Mediationsnacht) are no longer allowed at Frankfurt Airport after the inauguration of the new runway, and therefore overrode the approval from the Hessian government from 2007 which allowed 17 scheduled flights per night. On 4 April 2012, the German Administrative Court confirmed the decision of the Hessian Administration Court, banning night flights between 11pm and 5am.
To handle the predicted passenger amount of about 90 million in 2020, a new terminal section adjacent to Terminal 1 for an additional six million passengers opened on 10 October 2012. It is called Flugsteig A-Plus and is exclusively used by Lufthansa mainly for their long-haul flights. Flugsteig A-Plus features eight parking positions that are able to handle four Airbus A380s or seven Boeing 747-8/747–400 simultaneously.
In November 2016, Ryanair announced the opening of a new base at Frankfurt Airport with four routes to Spain and Portugal. This move by Ryanair was heavily blasted, especially by Lufthansa, as Ryanair was granted high discounts and incentives regarding the airport's fees.
2011 shooting
Albanian citizen, Arid Uka, a 21 year old at the time, targeted a United States Air Force bus parked outside the terminal building that was supposed to transport fifteen U.S. airmen to Ramstein Air Base. He reportedly walked up to a waiting airman, asked him for a cigarette, and wanted to know whether the airmen were bound for Afghanistan. When the airman said yes, according to German prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum, Uka waited for the airman to turn away and then shot him in the back of the head, killing him. Shouting "Allahu Akbar!" the attacker then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, and continued to fire three shots at two other airmen, wounding them. When he pointed his pistol at the head of another airman and pulled the trigger, the weapon jammed. Uka fled, but was pursued by the civilian airport employee Lamar Joseph Conner and Staff Sergeant Trevor Donald Brewer and shortly afterwards overpowered by two German police officers. He was subsequently arrested.
COVID-19 pandemic Portions of the airport were closed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Northwest Runway and Runway 18 West were closed on 23 March and re-purposed for parking unused aircraft. Terminal 2 was also closed, and all passenger operations were concentrated in Terminal 1. The Northwest Runway re-opened in July to handle summer tourist demand, while Runway 18 West remained closed. With almost no passenger traffic in the spring months, Frankfurt's total passenger volume in 2020 fell to 18.8 million, the lowest figure recorded since 1984.
Later In 2023, an outbreak of malaria broke out at the airport. It was followed by another outbreak in 2026 that sickened 6 employees, of which two died.
Terminals Overview Frankfurt Airport features two large main passenger terminals (Terminals 1 and 2), with Terminal 3 open since 22 April 2026 and operating since 23 April 2026, as well as a much smaller dedicated First Class Terminal which is operated and exclusively used by Lufthansa. As is the case at London–Heathrow, Tokyo–Narita and other major airports, terminal operations are grouped for airlines and airline alliances rather than into domestic and international routes. However, there are dedicated sections for Schengen and non-Schengen routes.
Terminal Concourse Schengen gates Non-Schengen gates Location 1 1A A1-A42, A50-A69 Terminal 1, Western Concourse, lower departure level 1Z Z11-Z25, Z50-Z69 Terminal 1, Western Concourse, upper departure level 1B B1-B19(inner area) B20-B63(outer area) Terminal 1, central concourse 1C C1 C2-C20 Terminal 1, eastern concourse 2 2D D21-D44(lower departure level) D1-D20/D50-D54(upper departure level) Terminal 2, western concourse 2E E21-E26(lower departure level) E2-E13(upper departure level) Terminal 2, eastern concourse33H3J
Terminal 1
Terminal 1 opened on 14 March 1972 as Terminal Mitte, and is the oldest and largest of the three passenger terminals. The landside is 420 metres long. It has been enlarged several times, is divided into concourses A, B, C and Z and has a capacity of approximately 50 million passengers per year. Terminal 1 is functionally divided into three levels, the departures level on the upper floor with check-in counters, the arrivals level with baggage claim areas on the ground floor and, underneath, a distribution floor with access to the regional station and underground and multilevel parking. Departures and arrivals levels each have separate street approaches. A bus station is located at the arrivals level. Terminal 1 has a total of 103 gates, which include 54 gates equipped with jetways (25 in Concourse A, 18 in Concourse B, 11 in Concourse C). Concourse Z sits on top of Concourse A sharing the same jet bridges between both concourses. Flights to non-Schengen destinations depart from the Z gates and Schengen flights depart from the A gates.
Pier A was extended by 500 metres in 2000, and a link between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, as well as the Hall C extension opened in 2008.
On 10 October 2012, an 800-metre-long westward expansion of Terminal 1 called Pier A-Plus went into operation. It provides more stands for wide-body aircraft like the Airbus A380.
Terminal 1 is primarily used by the Lufthansa Group and its Star Alliance partners, amongst them Air Canada, All Nippon Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and United Airlines. Some airlines that are not part of the Lufthansa Group or Star Alliance however also use Terminal 1, of which the largest is Condor (a former Lufthansa subsidiary). Since the secure gates for flights to Israel are located in Concourse C, Israeli flag carrier El Al also uses Terminal 1.
Condor has since announced that they will relocate to Terminal 3 in the Summer of 2027.
Terminal 2
Terminal 2, which has a capacity of 15 million passengers a year, was opened in 1994 and is divided into concourses D and E. A continuous concourse between Terminal 1C and 2D provides direct but non-public access between the two terminals. It has eight gates with jetways and 34 apron stands, a total of 42 gates and is able to handle wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A380.
Fraport announced in late 2022 that Terminal 2 will be temporarily closed for refurbishment starting in 2026. All airlines that once occupied Terminal 2 have relocated to Terminal 3 after it opened April 23, 2026.handelsblatt.com (German) 15 November 2022 Terminal 2 closed on June 9, 2026 with operations to resume in the mid-2030s.
Terminal 3
In 2009, the German government decided to create third terminals for both Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport in order to handle expected passenger flows of 90 million in Frankfurt by 2020 and 50 million in Munich by 2017. The new terminal is scheduled to be built by Fraport, south of the existing terminals on the grounds of the former Rhein-Main Air Base. The new Terminal 3 is to accommodate up to 25 million passengers and will feature 75 new aircraft positions when completely constructed. An extension of the SkyLine people mover system is planned to connect the new terminal to Terminals 1 and 2 and the airport railway stations.
In August 2014, the city of Frankfurt granted building permission for the first phase of Terminal 3. The groundbreaking for the new terminal took place on 5 October 2015. Its first phase, consisting of the main building and two of the planned four piers (concourses 3H and 3J), open in 2026 and can handle 15 million additional passengers per year. Total cost was estimated at 3 billion euros.aero.de – Frankfurt beginnt mit Bauarbeiten für Terminal 3 "Frankfurt starts construction of Terminal 3" (German) 5 October 2015
After delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, all 56 airlines using Terminal 2 moved to Terminal 3 in four phases.