“German airports” and “good news” don’t typically go in the same sentence. Along those lines, here’s perhaps the most exciting airport development for Germany since the opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER).
In this post:
Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3 will be home to most airlines
Up until now, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) has had two terminals — Terminal 1 is home to Lufthansa and many Star Alliance partners, while Terminal 2 is home to most non-Star Alliance airlines, with the exception of Condor. Yes, I know some people might be surprised to learn that the Lufthansa First Class Terminal isn’t the only part of the airport departures area. 😉
Anyway, Terminal 2 in Frankfurt opened back in 1994, and it’s not exactly a premium-feeling facility. Not that Terminal 1 is great either, but Terminal 2 is just especially uninspiring, in my opinion.
The good news is that for several years now, work has been taking place on Terminal 3, which is the airport’s brand new terminal. That terminal has been inaugurated today, April 22, 2026, and the first flight from the new terminal should operate tomorrow.
Not only does this represent a much needed capacity increase, but the new terminal is also much nicer aesthetically than the other two terminals.
The plan is that all airlines in Terminal 2 will move to Terminal 3 — after all, the new terminal has the capacity for 19 million annual passengers, while the old terminal has the capacity for 15 million annual passengers.
Then Terminal 2 will undergo a redevelopment, and then we’ll see what happens from there. We know that Lufthansa wants to expand into Terminal 2 as well, but it’s anyone’s guess how that plays out, as it’s a long term project.
So, with what timeline are airlines moving from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3? Airlines are expected to transition to Terminal 3 on four sets of dates, starting on April 23, and ending on June 9, 2026.
Terminal 3 is located on the complete opposite end of the “field” of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 (across all the parallel runways), though there’s a SkyLine connection between terminals, operating every two minutes, with a journey time of up to 10 minutes.
What about the Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3 lounge situation?
With the opening of Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3, it’s interesting how little news there has been about lounges in the new terminal. Currently, Terminal 2 has the Air France Lounge, Emirates Lounge, Japan Airlines Lounge, Primeclass Lounge, and Priority Lounge.
So far, the only Terminal 3 announcement I’ve seen is that there will be a SkyTeam Lounge there, measuring around 550 square meters (6,920 square feet). However, this will be in the non-Schengen area, so it’s intended for passengers flying on China Airlines, China Eastern, Delta, Korean Air, MEA, Saudia, and Vietnam Airlines.
What about lounges beyond that? It’s my understanding that Air France is also opening a lounge in the terminal, though with the airline only moving in several weeks, that’s not quite open yet.
What I haven’t seen is what we can expect from lounges otherwise, including from oneworld airlines, as well as other lounge options. The oneworld alliance doesn’t need a Schengen lounge, but it does need a non-Schengen lounge.
We’ve seen the oneworld alliance start to open its own branded lounges, and you’d think that Terminal 3 would be a prime candidate for such a facility, instead of a lounge specific to Japan Airlines. I have heard rumors that Qatar Airways might be opening its own lounge in the terminal (which would be awesome news), but that hasn’t been formally announced.
I also have to imagine that Emirates will open a lounge in the terminal, given the importance the airline places on running its own facilities. Then there’s the question of what Priority Pass or contract lounges we’ll see — will Primeclass move over, and will there be a second lounge, maybe with different branding? Only time will tell…
Bottom line
Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3 has just been inaugurated, and is expected to welcome its first flight tomorrow. Terminal 3 will initially be replacing operations at Terminal 2, and should represent a nice passenger experience upgrade.
While this hardly looks like the world’s most exciting new terminal, it does look like a big improvement over the rest of the airport. I look forward to passing through this terminal soon, and I’m curious what other new lounges we will see.
What do you make of the new Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3?
Frankfurt Airport official account on Xiaohongshu (RedNote) also mentioned there would be a Qatar Airways Lounge.
It seems Cathay is now sending passengers to the Priority Lounge. JAL lounge I think it is not.
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_IL/destinations/lounges/frankfurt-fra/priority-lounge.html
How will airside transit between T1 and T3 be handled? It looks like the new skyline is landside
The car is divided in two sections.
Non-Schengen Unclean
Schengen Unclean.
For a Non-Schengen-Transfer you will have to transfer at T2 station as of now.
Since when did all the payment terminals at food shops in FRA start asking for a tip??! Connected onto a train yesterday and was asked for a tip (by a machine) for buying water and cookies.
Qatar seemed to put new lounges on hold. Their new Bangkok satellite terminal lounge for example was announced with big fanfare two years ago, but never materialised and their old lounge is so far from their gates at the satellite terminal that I stopped using it.
Considering that Frankfurt Airport had only Third World Country Terminals so far, the new Terminal 3 is only patching up this bad image and is way behind the standard of other airports in the world, especially compared to Asia and the middle East.
Then again why have a world class Airport if the national Airline Lufthansa reputation does not really inspire any improvement.
What exactly is a Third World Country Terminal? Also, what does "Third World" even mean in 2026?
I don't understand why the headline says it is "exciting" ?
Are there monkeys swinging about inside ?
If you look at the interactive Frankfurt Airport map, there will be a new Emirates Lounge, and a "Priority Lounge". Apparently the Emirates lounge will be about 1,500 square meters according to a German news outlet, which would be absolutely massive for an outstation lounge at FRA, this is larger than most of the Lufthansa lounges.
I guess the Priority Lounge is FRA's own contract lounge and will probably be accessible with Priority Pass.
I...
If you look at the interactive Frankfurt Airport map, there will be a new Emirates Lounge, and a "Priority Lounge". Apparently the Emirates lounge will be about 1,500 square meters according to a German news outlet, which would be absolutely massive for an outstation lounge at FRA, this is larger than most of the Lufthansa lounges.
I guess the Priority Lounge is FRA's own contract lounge and will probably be accessible with Priority Pass.
I also read on FT that oneworld would open its own lounge but led by QR. Well, let's see if the lounge will cary OW or QR branding. The JL lounge staff confirmed that they will not move to T3. Not surprising. I guess Iberia and Finnair will send their passengers over to the new Air France lounge, once the Schengen carries all move over.
What makes you believe AY and IB would use the AF lounge which is for AF KL and SK customers as well as other their Skyteam members.
IB doesn't really do lounges at outstations (afaik "their" only outstation lounge is at EZE and that's a joint lounge with AA).
AY only has 2x flights to FRA (sometimes with Embraers/chartered aircraft) so it's not like FRA is an important airport for them.
I believe IB and AY have less capacity to FRA than to MUC, where they send premium pax to the AF lounge. So yes, they'll most likely sent them to the AF/PP lounge
They currently use the AF lounge in T2, that's why.
Lounge access is just a matter of money - before AF opened their own LAX lounges, they sent their pax to the OW lounge instead of the horrid KE bunker. Probably more expensive than what's negotiated within an alliance, but sometimes necessary.
As others have stated, IB and AY don't really do outstation lounges, unlike AF.
I participated as an extra at one of the „Probebetriebstage“.
Tried to figure out which lounges are being built but this area upstairs the non-Schengen terminal was restricted. Asked some airport staff but no one had a clue.
This is really a mystery how the airlines and Fraport are able to keep this secret.
Just in time to cancel 10000 flights due to lack of jetfuel.
“The oneworld alliance doesn’t need a Schengen lounge, but it does need a non-Schengen lounge.”
Won’t Iberia and Finnair passengers need a Schengen lounge? Or will they just be sent to whatever contract lounge will open there?
That really is a bizarre statement, FRA is an important destination for both carriers, and I imagine Iberia in particular would have a serious amount of premium connecting traffic to/from the Americas.
There's the same issue with both oneworld and *A at AMS, I prefer the *A solution of placing it in the domestic area as departing pax can always visit the lounge before crossing passport control which, even at peak times (and as long...
That really is a bizarre statement, FRA is an important destination for both carriers, and I imagine Iberia in particular would have a serious amount of premium connecting traffic to/from the Americas.
There's the same issue with both oneworld and *A at AMS, I prefer the *A solution of placing it in the domestic area as departing pax can always visit the lounge before crossing passport control which, even at peak times (and as long as there aren't any IT issues!), shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.
Condor moving to T3 next summer.
Das ist gut
Just as the new FRA terminal is opening, ironically Lufthansa reportedly is cancelling 200 flights in their summer schedule, according to Loyalty Lobby.
You missed two zeroes. LH is canceling twenty thousand flights.