Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3 termed a ‘tremendous success’

Frankfurt Airport operating company Fraport on Friday expressed satisfaction with its new Terminal 3, which opened in April.

The terminal, which cost around €4 billion ($4.5 billion), has already been used by approximately 4.4 million passengers, although still far from its full capacity of 19 million passengers annually.

“Terminal 3 is a tremendous success. The processes have settled in well,” Fraport board member Dietmar Focke said.

The operations of 57 airlines have been transferred to the new terminal in the southern section of the airport, Germany’s main aviation hub.

The next major challenge will come in April 2027, when Condor, Germany’s second-largest airline, completes the full relocation of its operations to Terminal 3.

Like the much larger Lufthansa, the former leisure airline operates a hub at Frankfurt Airport. This means it uses connecting flights from across Europe to fill its long-haul aircraft. These require short transfer times and reliable baggage and passenger-handling processes.

Frankfurt Airport is expected to handle around 63 million passengers again this year.

Focke says the additional space has also noticeably eased pressure on operations in the northern section of the airport. Aircraft now need to be repositioned considerably less frequently than before. Passengers also no longer have to endure lengthy bus transfers as often.

With an on-time performance rate of 73.4% during the summer, Frankfurt Airport has improved significantly compared with the previous year and has finally returned to the leading group of European hub airports.