Frankfurt Airport

For other uses, see Frankfurt Airport (disambiguation).

Frankfurt Airport Flughafen Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt Airport from Air
IATA: FRA ICAO: EDDF
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Fraport
Serves	Frankfurt am Main
Location	Flughafen (Frankfurt am Main)
Hub for	Condor Flugdienst Lufthansa
Elevation AMSL	364 ft / 111 m
Website	www.frankfurt-airport.com
Maps
FAA airport diagram
FRA Location within Hesse
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 07L/25R 4,000 13,123 Asphalt 07R/25L 4,000 13,123 Asphalt 18A 4,000 13,123 Concrete
Source: German AIP at EUROCONTROL A:^ The opposite end of Runway 18, which if marked would be Runway 36, is unused.

Frankfurt am Main Airport (IATA: FRA, ICAO: EDDF), known in German as Flughafen Frankfurt am Main or Rhein-Main-Flughafen is a major international airport located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 12 km (7.5 mi) southwest of the city centre. Run by Fraport, it is by far the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany, the third busiest in Europe and the ninth busiest worldwide in 2009. It serves the most international destinations in the world and is the busiest airport in Europe by cargo traffic. The southern side of the airport, Rhein-Main Air Base, was a major airlift base for the United States from 1947 until late 2005, when it was acquired by Fraport.

The airport is directly located in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, Germany's second 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 transportation hub to the greater region, less than two hours by ground to Cologne, the Ruhr Area, and Stuttgart.

There are plans to expand Frankfurt Airport with a fourth runway and a new Terminal 3. First modifications to the airport to make it Airbus A380 compatible are completed, including the first building of a large A380 maintenance facility near the former U.S. Air Base. The work on the fourth runway has been delayed several times due to environmental concerns, but received zoning approval in December 2007. The runway should go into operation in 2011.

Frankfurt is a hub of Lufthansa, the German national carrier. Lufthansa's secondary hub is Munich Airport where many key medium and long haul routes are available, lessening the need to overburden Frankfurt Airport.

History

The Rhein-Main Airport and Airship Base opened in 1936 and was the second-largest airport in Germany (after Tempelhof Airport in Berlin) through World War II.

Plans for a new airport in the south of Frankfurt existed since before 1930, but they were not realized due to the Great Depression. After 1933 the plans were revived by the Nazi regime and they started the construction of the airport. Initially the airport was the main base for the airships LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ 129 Hindenburg, but the regular flights were discontinued after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

World War II

During World War II the airport saw military use; from August to November 1944 the concentration camp Walldorf existed close to the airport where female prisoners were forced to work for the airport.

View of Terminal 2

After the war, it served as the main West German operations base for the United States Air Force's contribution to the Berlin Airlift. Since the main runway deteriorated due to the heavy use, a second runway was constructed during this time. The German Lufthansa finally recommenced their flights from Frankfurt in 1955.

Expansions

The airport did not emerge as a major international hub until 1972, when its new passenger terminal (now Terminal 1) opened. The runways were extended to 3,000 meters in 1957 and further extended to 3,900 meters in the following years. A new terminal building was opened in 1958. In 1962 it was decided to build an even larger terminal building (Terminal Mitte), planned for 30 million passengers per year. The works on this terminal began in 1965 and it was opened to the public on 14 March 1972. Along with the new terminal, the Frankfurt Airport Regional station opened, making it the first airport train station to open in the former Federal Republic of Germany.

Planning for a new runway (18 West) began in 1973. This project spawned massive protests by residents and environmentalists. While the protests and related lawsuits were unsuccessful in preventing the construction of the runway, the "Startbahn West" protests were one of the major crystallization points for the German environmentalist movement of the 1980s. The protests even continued after the runway had been opened in 1984.

Work on a new Terminal building began in 1990; the Terminal 2 was opened in 1994. The Frankfurt Airport long-distance station (Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof) was inaugurated in 1999. It's primarily used by long-distance InterCityExpress trains while regional/commuter trains (S-Bahn) continue to use the nearby underground regional station.

The Rhein-Main Air Base of the US Air Force was closed in 2005 and the property passed to Frankfurt airport.

Future expansions

A new runway, located just to the Northwest in the Kelsterbach Forest, is currently under construction and should open in 2011. The runway will measure 2,800 meters (9,240 feet) and be primarily used for landings. The center line separation from the existing North runway will be approx. 1,400 meters (4,620 feet). This will allow for simultaneous instrument landing system landing operations on these two runways, which has not been possible on the existing parallel runways because they do not meet the 3,500 foot requirement of ILS operations. This will enable FRA to raise the capacity of the airport from the current 83 aircraft movements to 126 movements per hour.

Aerial image the construction site of Terminal 3 (lower left) and the new runway (upper right)

Terminal 1B is undergoing renovation and construction of gates able to handle the Airbus A380. A new pier, A-Plus, is also under construction for future Airbus A380 operations. The pier will operate flights to non-Schengen destinations.

Fraport plans to build a vast new terminal to be located south of the existing terminals at the old Rhein-Main Air Base. The new terminal will be called "Terminal 3" and will feature 75 new aircraft positions. It will be connected to the Sky Line shuttle train system.

"The Squaire" (formerly known as "Airrail Center") is currently under construction and will open in 2011. It's located directly over the long-distance train station with a length of 660 metres (2,165 feet) and a width of 65 metres (213 feet). It will feature a substantial amount of office space as well as two hotels (Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn) and retail space. It will also feature parking for 600 vehicles.

Terminals, airlines, and destinations

Airport map

Information Panel, Terminal 1

Frankfurt Airport has several structures for passenger, cargo and general aviation operations.

Terminals

There are two passenger terminals at the airport: Terminal 1 is divided into concourses A, B and C and Terminal 2 is divided into concourses D and E. Lufthansa also maintains a dedicated terminal for use by their First Class passengers.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 opened on 14 March 1972, called Terminal Mitte (Central Terminal) back then for being in the middle of the runways, and between the original terminal in the east and the cargo area in the west. It was designed in a modern style for the period, with polished silver interiors and corrugated walls.

The terminal is functionally divided into three levels, the departure level in the upper deck with the check-in counters, the arrival level with the baggage claim areas at ground level and, underneath, a distribution level with access to the (regional) train station and the underground and multi-storey parking. Departure and arrivals levels have both separate street approaches. A bus station is located at arrivals level. Parallel to the terminal, on the other side of the street, are a hotel and an office building ("FAC" = Frankfurt Airport Centre). The three level deep underground parking garages are beneath those buildings. The tracks of the train station run between the terminal as such and the range of office and hotel buildings.

The landside of Terminal 1 is 420 metres long. Horizontally it is divided into three areas called A, B and C. It is divided into three concourses. Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners currently dominate all of Terminal 1.

A satellite view of terminal 1 shows it to have 54 jetway equipped gates. (25 in area A, 18 in area B, 11 in area C) Frankfurt airport's official website shows, including non-jetway "stand" gates, a total of 103 gates.

Terminal 2

East and adjacent to terminal 1, terminal 2 was opened in 1994 containing gate areas D and E. A continuous concourse between 1C and 2D provides direct access between the two terminals. Terminal 2 has 8 jetway equipped gates and 34 stands for a total of 42 gates.

Lufthansa First Class Terminal

Two Lufthansa Airbus A380s at Frankfurt Airport.

Lufthansa Boeing 747 Parked At Frankfurt Airport

Lufthansa maintains a separate First Class Terminal at Frankfurt Airport (50.049166 N,8.565856 E) for the use of its first class passengers. The terminal is exclusively available to passengers flying Lufthansa First Class or Lufthansa's Miles & More HON Circle members, that depart with a flight operated by Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines Group, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional or SWISS. Passengers flying other Star Alliance partners in First Class have no access to the First Class Terminal. The terminal has 200 staff for around 300 passengers per day, and provides individualised security screening and customs facilities, valet parking, a white-linen restaurant, a cigar room and bubble baths. Passengers clear exit immigration controls in the terminal and then are driven from the terminal directly to their aircraft by a chaffeured Mercedes-Benz S-Class or Porsche Panamera. The commercial success of the FCT at Frankfurt has led Lufthansa to plan the opening of a similar facility at Munich Airport.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal
Adria Airways	Ljubljana, Pristina, Vienna	1A
Aegean Airlines	Athens, Thessaloniki	1B
Aer Lingus	Dublin	2D
Aeroflot	Moscow-Sheremetyevo	2E
Air Algérie	Algiers	1B
Air Astana	Astana	2E
Air Berlin	Alicante, Berlin-Tegel, Catania, Hamburg, Hurghada, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Seasonal: Corfu, Djerba [ends 26 April], Enfidha [begins 3 May], Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Kavala, Lamezia Terme, Monastir [ends 26 April], Olbia, Pristina, Rhodes, Samos, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos	2E
Air Canada	Calgary, Montreal-Trudeau, Ottawa, Toronto-Pearson	1B
Air China	Beijing-Capital, Shanghai-Pudong	1B
Air France	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	2D
Air India	Ahmadabad, Delhi	1C
Air Malta	Catania, Malta	1B
Air Mauritius	Mauritius	2D
Air Moldova	Chişinău	1B
Air Namibia	Windhoek	2D
Air Transat	Seasonal: Calgary, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver	2E
Air VIA	Seasonal: Burgas, Varna	2D
airBaltic	Riga	2E
Albanian Airlines	Tirana	2E
Alitalia	Milan-Linate, Rome-Fiumicino	2D
Alitalia operated by Air One	Rome-Fiumicino	2D
All Nippon Airways	Tokyo-Narita	1B
American Airlines	Dallas/Fort Worth	1C
Ariana Afghan Airlines	Kabul	2E
Asiana Airlines	Seoul-Incheon	1C
Austrian Airlines	Vienna	1A
Austrian operated by Tyrolean Airways	Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna	1A
B&H Airlines	Banja Luka, Sarajevo	2D
Belavia	Minsk	2D
British Airways	London-Heathrow	2E
British Airways operated by BA CityFlyer	London-City	2E
Bulgaria Air	Sofia	1B
Bulgarian Air Charter	Seasonal: Burgas, Varna	2E
Cathay Pacific	Hong Kong	2E
China Airlines	Taipei-Taoyuan	2D
China Eastern Airlines	Shanghai-Pudong	2D
Cirrus Airlines	Hof/Plauen	1A
Condor Flugdienst	Agadir, Antigua, Arrecife, Barbados, Cancún, Colombo, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Havana, Holguín, Hurghada, Jerez de la Frontera, Kilimanjaro, Larnaca, La Romana, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Vegas, Málaga, Mahé, Malé, Marsa Alam, Mauritius, Mombasa, Montego Bay, Palma de Mallorca, Panama City, Paphos, Porlamar, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Recife [resumes 6 May], Saint Lucia, Salvador da Bahia, San José de Costa Rica, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Santo Domingo, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tenerife-South, Varadero, Zanzibar Seasonal: Anchorage, Burgas, Calgary, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Djerba, Fairbanks, Goa, Fort Lauderdale, Halifax, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Luxor, Phuket, Rhodes, Santorini, Seattle/Tacoma [begins 23 June], Tobago, Vancouver, Whitehorse	1C
Continental Airlines	Houston-Intercontinental, Newark	1B
Croatia Airlines	Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb	1A
Cyprus Airways	Larnaca	1B
Czech Airlines	Prague	2E
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, Detroit, New York-JFK	2D
Donavia	Rostov-on-Don	2D
EgyptAir	Cairo	1B
El Al	Tel Aviv	1C
Emirates	Dubai	2E
Ethiopian Airlines	Addis Ababa	1C
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi	2E
Finnair	Helsinki	2E
Flybe	Birmingham, Glasgow-International, Manchester, Southampton	2E
Freebird Airlines	Antalya	2D
Georgian Airways	Tbilisi	2D
Gulf Air	Bahrain	2D
Iberia	Madrid	2E
Icelandair	Reykjavík-Keflavík	2E
Iran Air	Mashhad, Tehran-Imam Khomeini	1C
Japan Airlines	Tokyo-Narita	2D
Jat Airways	Belgrade	1C
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam	2D
Korean Air	Seoul-Incheon	2D
Kuwait Airways	Kuwait, Geneva	1B
LAN Airlines	Madrid, Santiago	2E
LOT Polish Airlines	Gdańsk, Kraków, Poznań, Warsaw	1A
LOT operated by EuroLOT	Poznań, Wrocław	1A
Lufthansa	Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Algiers, Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Arbil, Ashgabat, Asmara, Astana, Athens, Atlanta, Bahrain, Baku, Bangalore, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Barcelona, Beijing-Capital, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin-Tegel, Bilbao, Billund, Birmingham (UK), Bogota, Bologna, Boston, Bremen, Brussels, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Cairo, Calgary, Caracas, Casablanca, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare, Copenhagen, Dallas/Fort Worth, Dammam, Delhi, Denver, Detroit, Doha, Dresden, Dubai, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Guangzhou, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston-Intercontinental, Hyderabad, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kazan, Kiev-Boryspil, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Larnaca, Leipzig/Halle, Lisbon, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles, Luanda, Lyon, Madrid, Malabo, Málaga, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Mexico City, Miami, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Minsk, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nagoya-Centrair, Nanjing, New York-JFK, Newark, Nice, Nizhniy Novgorod, Nuremberg, Orlando, Osaka-Kansai, Oslo-Gardermoen, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Perm, Philadelphia, Port Harcourt, Porto, Poznań, Prague, Riga, Riyadh, Rome-Fiumicino, Rostock-Laage [begins 27 March], Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, San Francisco, Sana’a [resumes 27 March], São Paulo-Guarulhos, Seattle/Tacoma, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai-Pudong, Singapore, Sofia, Stavanger, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Tel Aviv, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Toulouse, Tripoli, Tunis, Turin, Vancouver, Venice-Marco Polo, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Washington-Dulles, Yekaterinburg, Zagreb, Zürich Seasonal: Cape Town	1A, 1B, 1C
Lufthansa operated by Cirrus Airlines	Friedrichshafen, Katowice, Münster/Osnabrück, Toulouse	1A, 1C
Lufthansa operated by PrivatAir	Khartoum, Libreville, Pointe-Noire, Pune	1A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Air Dolomiti	Turin, Verona	1A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings	Billund, Bremen, Brussels, Gdańsk, Geneva, Graz, Hanover, Kraków, Leipzig/Halle, London-City, Nuremberg, Stavanger, Stuttgart, Wrocław	1A
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine	Basel/Mulhouse, Bergen, Brussels National, Florence, Linz, London-City, Münster/Osnabrück, Poznań, Rzeszów, Sofia, Split [begins 2 April], Stuttgart, Turin, Zagreb	1A
Luxair	Luxembourg	1A
Malaysia Airlines	Kuala Lumpur	2D
Malév Hungarian Airlines	Budapest	2E
MIAT Mongolian Airlines	Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Ulan Bator [both begin 31 March]
Middle East Airlines	Beirut	1B
Montenegro Airlines	Podgorica	2D
Niki	Vienna	2E
Nouvelair	Monastir	2E
Oman Air	Muscat	2E
Onur Air	Antalya, Dalaman	2D
Ostfriesische Lufttransport	Heringsdorf	2E
Pakistan International Airlines	Islamabad, Lahore	2D
Pegasus Airlines	Antalya	2D
Qantas	Singapore, Sydney	2E
Qatar Airways	Doha	1B
Rossiya	Saint Petersburg	2D
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca, Nador	1B
Royal Jordanian	Amman-Queen Alia	2E
S7 Airlines	Moscow-Domodedovo, Novosibirsk	2E
Safi Airways	Kabul [ends 10 January]	2E
Saravia	Saratov	2E
SATA International	Ponta Delgada	2E
Saudi Arabian Airlines	Jeddah, Riyadh	2D
Scandinavian Airlines	Copenhagen, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda	1A
Singapore Airlines	New York-JFK, Singapore	1B
Sky Airlines	Antalya	2D
Somon Air	Dushanbe	2D
South African Airways	Johannesburg	1B
Spanair	Madrid	1A
SriLankan Airlines	Colombo	2E
Sun d'Or International Airlines	Tel Aviv	1C
SunExpress	Antalya, İstanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, İzmir	1B
Swiss International Air Lines	Zürich	1A
Swiss operated by Swiss European Air Lines	Zürich	1A
Syrianair	Aleppo, Damascus	2D
TAM Airlines	Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, São Paulo-Guarulhos	1B
TAP Portugal	Lisbon	1B
TAROM	Bucharest-Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca	1B
Thai Airways International	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi	1C
Transaero Airlines	Moscow-Domodedovo	2D
TUIfly	Boa Vista, Fuerteventura, Hurghada, Lanzarote, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Marsa Alam, Sal, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Agadir, Antalya, Corfu, Dalaman, Enfidha [begins 3 May], Faro, Funchal, Heraklion, Ibiza [begins 28 May], Jerez de la Frontera, Luxor, Mahon/Minorca [begins 1 May], Monastir [ends 26 April], Palma de Mallorca, Patras/Araxos, Rhodes	2D
Tunisair	Djerba, Monastir, Tunis	1B
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk Seasonal: Izmir	1B
Turkish operated by AnadoluJet	Ankara	1B
Turkmenistan Airlines	Ashgabat	2D
Ukraine International Airlines	Kiev-Boryspil Seasonal: Simferopol	2D
United Airlines	Chicago-O'Hare, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles	1B
US Airways	Charlotte, Philadelphia	1C
Uzbekistan Airways	Tashkent	2D
Vietnam Airlines	Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City	1B
XL Airways Germany	Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Kayseri, Malatya, Marrakech [begins 6 May]Samsun	2D
Yemenia	Sana'a	2E

Cities with a direct international airlink to Frankfurt Airport

Cargo Terminal

Airlines	Destinations
AeroLogic	Atlanta, Chicago-O'Hare, Leipzig/Halle
Air China Cargo	Beijing-Capital, Novosibirsk, Shanghai-Pudong
AirBridgeCargo Airlines	Krasnojarsk, Moscow-Sheremetyewo
Asiana Cargo	Seoul-Incheon, Gothenburg, Moscow-Domodedovo, Vienna
British Airways World Cargo	Atlanta, Bangalore, Chicago-O'Hare, Delhi, Dubai, Hong Kong, London-Stansted
Cargo Garuda Indonesia	Jakarta-Soekarno Hatta
Cathay Pacific Cargo	Delhi, Dubai, Hong Kong, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Mumbai, Stockholm-Arlanda
China Airlines	Abu Dhabi, Taipei-Taoyuan
China Southern Airlines	Shanghai-Pudong, Urumqi
Emirates SkyCargo	Campinas, Dakar, Dubai, Toledo
European Air Transport	London-Heathrow
Eva Air Cargo	Dubai, Taipei-Taoyuan
FedEx Express	Almaty, Athens, Delhi, Dublin, Hahn, Memphis, Milan-Malpensa, Munich, Newark, Osaka-Kansai, Shanghai-Pudong, Tel Aviv, Tokyo-Narita
FedEx Feeder operated by Air Contractors	Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Grandstar Cargo	Shanghai-Pudong, Tianjin
Iran Air Cargo	Tehran-Mehrabad
Jade Cargo International	Barcelona, Kolkata, Lahore, Mumbai, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai-Pudong, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Vienna
JAL Cargo	Amsterdam, Tokyo-Narita
Korean Air Cargo	Brussels, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Navoi, Seoul-Incheon, Stockholm-Arlanda
LAN Cargo	Amsterdam, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Campinas, Lima, Santiago de Chile
Lufthansa Cargo	Almaty, Amsterdam, Athens, Atlanta, Bahrain, Bangalore, Bangkok, Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Cairo, Campinas, Chennai, Chicago-O'Hare, Curacao, Curitiba, Dakar, Dallas/Fort Worth, Delhi, Gothenburg, Guadalajara, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karaganda, Krasnoyarsk, Kuwait, Lima, Los Angeles, Malta, Manchester, Mexico City, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Mumbai, Nairobi, New York-JFK, Nottingham, Osaka-Kansai, Quito, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Ryadh, Seattle/Tacoma, Shanghai-Pudong, Shannon, Sharjah, Tashkent, Tianjin, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson
MASkargo	Amsterdam, Colombo, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Tashkent
Night Express	Coventry
Qatar Airways Cargo	Doha
Thai Airways International	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Dubai, Hong Kong
Turkish Airlines Cargo	Istanbul-Atatürk

Other features and amenities

Frankfurt has two cargo terminals, North and South, as well as a separate General Aviation Terminal on the south side of the airport. There is also a Sheraton hotel adjacent to Terminal 1. Terminal 1 also has a full-service German Post Office and a DHL office open to the public.

Access

Public transport

There are two railway stations at Frankfurt Airport: one for suburban/regional trains and one for long distance trains.

Frankfurt Airport Regional station at Terminal 1 provides access to the S-Bahn commuter rail lines S8 and S9 which depart every 15 minutes during the day to Wiesbaden in the west via Rüsselsheim and Mainz and to Hanau in the east via Frankfurt Central Station, Frankfurt city centre and Offenbach am Main. The journey time to Frankfurt Central Station is 11 minutes, to the city centre (Hauptwache) 15 minutes. The first S-Bahn trains arrive at 4:28h from Frankfurt and Hanau, and at 4:29h from Mainz and Wiesbaden; the last ones depart at 1:32h to Frankfurt, at 0:29h to Wiesbaden and at 0:59h to Rüsselsheim.

Regional-Express trains to other destinations like Saarbrücken in the west, Koblenz down the Rhine valley to the north, or Würzburg in the east also call at the Regional Railway Station, as do some long distance trains, especially at night when the Long Distance Railway Station is closed.

Airport Long-Distance Rail Station

Modal split of means of transport of passengers departing from Frankfurt airport in 2006

Frankfurt Airport long-distance station was opened in 1999. It is the end point of the newly-built Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, which links southern Germany to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the Netherlands and Belgium via Cologne at speeds up to 300 km/h (190 mph). All ICE trains between Cologne and southern Germany stop at Frankfurt Airport, taking slightly less than an hour from Cologne. About 10 trains per hour depart in all directions.

The station is squeezed in between the A3 and the four-lane Bundesstraße B43, linked to Terminal 1 by a building that bridges the Autobahn. Arriving railway passengers can check in right at the train station for about 60 airlines.

Deutsche Bahn operates the AIRail Service in conjunction with Lufthansa, American Airlines and Emirates. The service operates to the central stations of Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Hamburg, Hannover, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe.

Various transport companies provide bus services to the airport.

Car and taxi

Frankfurt Airport is located in the Frankfurt City Forest and directly connected to a Autobahn intersection called Frankfurter Kreuz where the A3 and A5 meet. It takes a 10–15 minutes ride by car or taxi to get to Frankfurt Central Station or the city centre.

There are multi-level parking garages along the terminals, mostly underground, for passengers coming with their own car. A long term holiday parking lot is located south of the runways and connected with a shuttle bus to the terminals.

Ground transportation statistics

In 2006, 29.5% of the 12,299,192 passengers whose air travel originated in Frankfurt came by private car, 27.9% came by rail, 20.4% by taxi, 11.1% parked their car at the airport for the duration of their trip, 5.3% came by bus, and 4.6% arrived with a rental car.

Incidents and Accidents

On 22 May 1983 during an Air show at the Rhein-Main Air Base, a Canadian RCAF Lockheed F-104 Starfighter crashed onto a nearby road, hitting a car and killing all passengers, a vicar's family of 5. The pilot was able to eject.

In 1988 the first leg of Pan Am Flight 103 (a Boeing 727) took off from Frankfurt. About half of the passengers and baggage were from other flights and had changed planes to Flight 103 (a Boeing 747) at Heathrow Airport to continue to New York. A bomb exploded on the aircraft above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all the passengers on board. The bomb is believed to have been planted by Libyan terrorists.

In September 2007, German authorities arrested three suspected Islamic terrorists for plotting a "massive" terror attack, which posed "an imminent threat" to Frankfurt Airport and the US Air Force base in Ramstein.

Traffic and statistics

In 2009 Frankfurt Airport was the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of total passenger traffic but it was second behind Charles de Gaulle in terms of plane movements and in terms of cargo traffic.

Busiest routes at Frankfurt Airport (2009)

Rank	Airport	departing Passengers	Airlines
1	Berlin-Tegel	777,900	Lufthansa, Air Berlin
2	Hamburg	606,700	Lufthansa, Air Berlin
3	London-Heathrow	602,300	British Airways, Lufthansa
4	Munich	488,700	Lufthansa
5	Chicago-O'Hare	453,900	Air India, American Airlines, Lufthansa, United Airlines
6	Madrid	453,800	Iberia, LAN Airlines, Lufthansa
7	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	445,500	Air France, Lufthansa
8	Vienna	440,000	Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Niki
9	Singapore	427,400	Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines
10	Dublin	401,758	Aer Lingus, Lufthansa
11	New York-JFK	353,200	Delta, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines
12	Washington-Dulles	336,800	Lufthansa, United
13	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi	335,800	Lufthansa, Thai Airways
14	Istanbul-Atatürk	330,100	Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines
15	Rome-Fiumicino	321,200	Alitalia, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa, Yemenia
16	Dubai	318,300	Condor, Emirates, Lufthansa
17	Barcelona	297,300	Lufthansa
18	Palma de Mallorca	296,000	Air Berlin, Condor, TUIfly
19	Toronto-Pearson	290,200	Air Canada, Air Transat, Lufthansa
20	San Francisco	284,300	Lufthansa, United
21	Amsterdam	279,700	KLM, Lufthansa
22	Zurich	278,300	Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines
23	Copenhagen	270,000	Lufthansa, SAS
24	Tokyo-Narita	265,400	All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa
25	Stockholm-Arlanda	257,600	Lufthansa, SAS
26	Beijing-Capital	249,600	Air China, Lufthansa
27	Antalya	245,600	Condor, Pegasus Airlines, Sky Airlines, SunExpress, TUIFly
28	Lisbon	244,300	Lufthansa, TAP Portugal
29	Shanghai-Pudong	239,200	Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Lufthansa
30	Seoul-Incheon	238,500	Asiana Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa
31	Athens	237,600	Aegean Airlines, Lufthansa, Olympic Airlines
32	Newark	232,300	Air India, Continental, Lufthansa
33	Hong Kong	231,300	Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa
34	Oslo-Gardermoen	222,600	Lufthansa, SAS
35	São Paulo-Guarulhos	220,315	Lufthansa, TAM Airlines
36	Tel Aviv	219,000	El Al, Lufthansa, Sun d'Or International Airlines
37	Helsinki	218,200	Finnair, Lufthansa
38	Brussels-National	216,200	Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa
39	Prague	206,200	Czech Airlines, Lufthansa
40	Johannesburg	205,755	Lufthansa, South African Airways

See also

• Fraport
• Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
• Frankfurt Airport long-distance station
• Rhein-Main Air Base

External links

• Official website
• FRA / EDDF airspace and charts