Airport Guide

History of Frankfurt Airport

Until just three decades ago, Frankfurt Airport welcomed solely military traffic. Opened amid much pomp and ceremony in 1936 as the Rhein-Main Airport and Airship Base, it quickly became the second-largest terminal in the whole of Germany, behind only Berlin.

During the Second World War, Frankfurt played a major role, expanding significantly over a short space of time to accommodate both bombers and fighter planes. Once hostilities came to an end, the United States Air Force moved in, using it as its main operational base in West Germany and launching the Berlin Airlift from the airport.

Only in 1972 did Frankfurt emerge as a real international commercial airport, with the opening of a proper passenger terminal. Since then it has acquired two more runways, with another in the pipeline, while the US forces moved out for good in 2005.

Travelling to Frankfurt Airport

As is to be expected of a German airport, public transportation to terminals at Frankfurt is cheap, efficient and reliable. The airport itself has two railway stations. As its name suggests, the Airport Regional Station offers rail links to Frankfurt city centre just 11 minutes away, as well as a number of other smaller cities and towns in the region, including Koblenz, Saarbruken and Wurzburg. In addition, the Airport Long Distance Railway Station forms one end of the high-speed Frankfurt to Cologne railway line, offering 190mph links to the Gothic city and most of the larger German cities.

Likewise, travelling to Frankfurt Airport by car is unproblematic, with the terminal located just off a main Autobahn and around ten minutes from the Frankfurt Central Station. Taxis and public buses run all night long, while there is ample short-term and long-term parking.

Airlines Flying from Frankfurt Airport

As the eighth-largest airport in the whole of the world, Frankfurt handles dozens of different airlines operating to hundreds of destinations dotted across the globe.

Dominating the skies above the west of Germany is the country's national carrier, Lufthansa. The airline jets all over the world, operating routes to places as varied as Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Florence, Beijing, Johannesburg and New York. In comparison, most other carriers offer limited services, with most simply offering services to their own home countries, such as Swiss Air's daily flights to Zurich or Luxair's service to Luxembourg.

Air Canada, American Airlines and US Airways are among those carriers offering transatlantic services, while British Airways offers routes between Frankfurt and the UK, alongside Lufthansa.

As with most of the larger airports, the budget airlines have been priced out of Frankfurt, flying out of nearby Hahn instead.

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Another article in this series is on London Heathrow Airport or you could use our search for more help