Graham Smith reports on how Germany’s busiest airport is gearing up to boost capacity with a third terminal
Frankfurt airport is filling up fast. Its two terminals are expected to exceed capacity by 2021, and with approval now granted for a third, the chief executive of its operator, Fraport, is clear how essential this expansion is for the airport.
Stefan Schulte says: “Without construction of a third terminal, increasing numbers of large aircraft, which primarily serve intercontinental routes, would have to be handled at remote parking positions away from the terminals. Aircraft congestion and waiting times on the taxiways would reach unacceptable levels.”
Frankfurt has more passenger traffic than any other German airport, with almost 60 million people passing through last year. After London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, it is the
third-busiest airport in Europe and the 11th-busiest in the world, according to Airports Council International.
Currently, the facility is operating at 80 per cent capacity. Its four runways collectively host 100 take-offs and landings per hour, with the ability to go up to 124. This alone would ensure Frankfurt’s medium-term future as a top-tier hub, especially given that Heathrow is operating at 98 per cent capacity. Governmental approval of plans for a third terminal has all but guaranteed further growth.
Then there is Frankfurt’s location in the heart of Germany. The airport sits next to two of the country’s busiest autobahns, has an adjoining train station and is only 12km away from the city centre – a particular boon for accountants and bankers wanting swift access to Germany’s leading financial market. Frankfurt is Lufthansa’s number one gateway airport with good reason.
Andreas Doepper, the airline’s head of station and infrastructure development at Frankfurt, says: “There are links between air, the railway system and the highway system so it’s a perfect destination for connecting from trains to flights and from cars to airside.”
Still, more than 55 per cent of passengers are there to transfer between flights. “That’s the highest percentage of all the European hubs,” says Thomas Kirner, Fraport’s head of service quality. The airport is investing considerable resources in facilities for them, not least because of the threat posed by the ever-expanding Gulf airlines. “It’s a big economic threat to us if we lose [transfer travellers] to Dubai and Istanbul,” Kirner acknowledges.
The average stopover time at the airport is 2.5 hours. In 2013, an online “Create Your Stay” tool was launched allowing passengers to plan activities in advance, taking into account the length of each layover. For instance, those with two hours to spare can pre-book a massage or shower; those with a four-hour stopover can visit the airport casino, go shopping or take a guided tour of the airport; while those in transit for six hours or longer can apply for the appropriate visa to travel into the city.
As part of a €10 million improvement programme, in the past few years the airport has introduced free wifi, upgraded seating zones and added rest areas. It has also installed travelators and provided shuttle taxis to combat the sometimes lengthy walks from terminal to gate – something that has long been a source of complaint for those travelling through Frankfurt, where the distance between business class check-in and the end of Concourse A, the location of many Lufthansa short-haul European flights, is more than a kilometre.
Some 108 airlines operate flights to 295 destinations in 105 countries each week (peak season figures). Of those, 172 destinations in 72 countries are served by Lufthansa. More than half of the connections offered by the airport are located outside of Europe.
Some 40 million Lufthansa Group passengers travel through the airport each year, while up to 70 per cent of Frankfurt’s traffic is made up of Lufthansa customers or those travelling with its Star Alliance partners.
Lufthansa’s Doepper says: “[There are] 21 Star Alliance carriers serving Frankfurt right now, [offering] a 360-degree network to all countries and destinations. Lufthansa’s flagship aircraft, the A380 and the B747-8, are based here for our long-haul operation.”
Terminal 1 is mainly occupied by Lufthansa and Star Alliance and has the most convenient location, being linked to the airport’s train station. It has four concourses: A for passengers travelling to the border-free Schengen area, Z for non-Schengen area flights, and B and C mainly for international services.
The smaller Terminal 2 is adjacent to Terminal 1 and is used by other carriers including Oneworld and Skyteam members. It has two concourses – D and E. Unaffiliated carriers are split across both terminals.
There are 26 lounges at the airport, of which 14 are operated by Lufthansa. These include the airline’s largest lounge worldwide, a 2,000 sqm facility in Terminal 1’s A-Plus pier, as well as the First Class Terminal, which is located in its own building a short limousine ride from Terminal 1. Entry to the First Class Terminal is available solely to those Lufthansa passengers travelling in the top cabin and Hon Circle members of its Miles and More frequent flyer programme.
Also available to first and business class passengers is the Lufthansa Welcome lounge in the arrivals zone. Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia and Japan Airlines operate lounges at the airport.
Germany’s ministry of transport and digital infrastructure has said that it expects air passenger figures to increase by an average of 2.5 per cent per year until 2030, in line with annual growth in recent years. The airport’s twin terminal set-up is capable of accommodating 65 million people a year – five million more than it saw in 2014. Nevertheless, it is reaching its limits at check-in, security, passport control and customs during peak times in the summer.
This is why Terminal 3 is being built. Unlike Heathrow, which is engaged in a seemingly never-ending deliberation to garner official approval for a third runway, Frankfurt has been given the green light to expand. Its fourth runway opened in 2011 and Terminal 3 is scheduled to open in 2021.
Construction will begin this year on land that was once home to the US Rhein-Main air base, to the south of the existing terminal buildings. The first phase comes with a €1.2 billion price tag and will include the central terminal building and two piers, with 24 aircraft docking positions serving an annual 14 million passengers.
Once fully complete, Terminal 3 will have 50 stands serving 25 million passengers. It will be linked to Terminals 1 and 2, as well as the existing rail station, by extending the Sky Line passenger transfer system and the baggage conveyor belt tunnel under all four runways.
Lufthansa has no plans to move its services into Terminal 3 when the new facility opens, as to do so would significantly lengthen the airline’s transfer times. Currently, the minimum connection time for short-haul flights is 45 minutes and for long-haul services is 60 minutes. For this reason, Lufthansa has decided to keep its operations in Terminal 1.
Doepper says: “We have more than 80 different traffic streams from our incoming European flights to other destinations, so you can’t separate these continental network flights connecting directly to the intercontinental flights. You’d have to organise a split operation, and then you [would] need to expand the transit time.
“We calculated a travel time of more than one hour between these terminal areas. It’s not an option for us to go to Terminal 3, but for the airport’s development it is a necessary improvement in capacity.”
He adds: “From the customers’ point of view, to make sure they can transfer through a major hub within 45 minutes… that’s an important factor for us to guarantee.”
Doepper says that Fraport is more than likely to fill the new terminal with airlines that currently operate out of Terminal 2 – those with the least transfer traffic. This would leave more room in the existing facilities for connecting flights.
Whatever the eventual configuration, an increase in stopover traffic is the primary force powering Frankfurt’s growth. So continuing to attract the transferring traveller will no doubt remain its principal focus for the foreseeable future.
FRANKFURT IN NUMBERS
- Third busiest airport in Europe
- 11th busiest worldwide
- Four runways
- Two passenger terminals (with a third coming)
- 108 airlines
- 295 destinations served in 105 countries
- 59.6 million passengers in 2014
- 55% of passengers are transferring
- 89% take international flights
- 469,000 aircraft movements in 2014
