We recently saw the opening of Frankfurt Airport (FRA) Terminal 3, which is the first new terminal to open at the airport in over 30 years. That’s super exciting, though lounges in the terminal are still a work in progress, as not all have been opened yet.
Up until now, one big gap has been for oneworld airlines, as there’s not currently a dedicated oneworld lounge in the terminal, and for that matter, none has been officially announced. So there’s now a positive update, as we’ve learned about plans for a Qatar Airways Lounge Frankfurt… actually, two lounges!
In this post:
Qatar Airways plans to operate Frankfurt’s oneworld lounge(s)
While there hasn’t been a formal announcement, Travel-Dealz reports on a sign posted outside a lounge space at Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3, regarding a permit for a new lounge. Specifically, it mentions how Qatar Airways is building two spaces in the terminal.
For what it’s worth, this lounge space is located in the non-Schengen area of the terminal, right by the SkyTeam Lounge, which already opened.
It remains to be seen when exactly the Qatar Airways lounge locations will open, and how big they’ll be. There’s a large oneworld presence in the non-Schengen area of the terminal, as the airport is served by American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, and SriLankan. Meanwhile Finnair and Iberia passengers depart from the Schengen portion of the terminal, so presumably wouldn’t have access to the lounge.
So, what exactly is going on here, and why would Qatar Airways open two lounges in the terminal? That seems odd on the surface, but I think there’s a potentially logical explanation.
Qatar Airways is known for its phenomenal outstation premium lounges, at airports like Bangkok (BKK), London (LHR), Paris (CDG), and Singapore (SIN). However, the lounges sort of counter typical oneworld lounge access rules. They’re not open to oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire members, but instead, are open exclusively to oneworld first and business class passengers.
So the most logical explanation is that the second lounge space could be a dedicated one for oneworld elite members, much like the airline has at its Doha (DOH) hub. This does counter Qatar Airways’ standard outstation lounge approach, where elite members are often just sent to contract or partner lounges. But I guess if the lounge space was available, this could make sense.
This is best case scenario for oneworld flyers, but confusing
Qatar Airways probably operates the world’s highest quality business class outstation lounges, so I’d consider this development to be really good news for travelers. The Qatar Airways outstation lounges have amazing cocktails, a la carte dining, and beautiful decor. What a treat it’ll be to fly American out of Frankfurt and have access to that.
It’s kind of funny to think how much better the business class ground experience will be if flying any oneworld airline out of Frankfurt, rather than any Star Alliance airline, where you have access to Lufthansa’s lounge portfolio.
So while I’m looking forward to this, here’s the part I don’t understand — a couple of years ago we saw oneworld start to open its own branded lounges, and so far, there are two locations, in Amsterdam (AMS) and Seoul Incheon (ICN). Executives at the alliance claimed that the goal was to open 15 to 30 of these lounges over time.
You’d think Frankfurt would literally be the prime candidate for such a lounge location, given that it’s an airport that has service from most oneworld airlines, without any dominant airline. Has the oneworld alliance scaled back on its lounge ambitions? Did the alliance just get “beat” to securing a contract by Qatar Airways?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a Qatar Airways lounge over a oneworld lounge, but in terms of building a brand for the alliance, this is just a puzzling direction to take.
I guess this is a little less strange than the old oneworld lounge setup in Terminal 2, where it was Japan Airlines operating the lounge, with a quirky first class section no less.
Bottom line
We’ve now learned that Qatar Airways not only plans to open one lounge in Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3, but possibly even two lounge spaces, both in the non-Schengen area. This new terminal doesn’t yet have any oneworld lounges, and there was a mystery as to which airline would actually operate the lounge. Now we know, and I’d say it’s great news for passengers, given the quality. However, I still don’t understand why the oneworld alliance didn’t use this opportunity to build out its own network.
What do you make of Qatar Airways’ Frankfurt lounge plans?
I believe Qatar also has two lounges at LHR T4 with one for business/first class and for frequent fliers.
Since Qatar is building 2 lounges, Riyadh Air is opening 3 of them. All passengers with an Atlanta drivers license have access since they have a superior joint venture and MRO revenue. WiFi in the lounges will be ViaSat and change to Amazon Leo in 2038. There is a rumor that there will only be 50 PREMIUM CHAIRS to match the game changing, earth ending DL A350K configuration.
This goes to show just how irrelevant BA have become for any passengers flying to/from anywhere other than the US.
Frankfurt is the continent's biggest industry hub for financial services and, due to its mainline train station and the airport boasts an enormous catchment area.
Imagine Lufthansa having no lounge at LHR and needing to rely on TK running two of them!