“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). While this process started several weeks back, this project has now been completed, so let’s go over the details.
In this post:
Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3 now home to most airlines
Up until recently, Frankfurt Airport (FRA) had two terminals — Terminal 1 is home to Lufthansa and many Star Alliance partners, while Terminal 2 was 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 was not exactly a premium-feeling facility. Not that Terminal 1 is great either, but Terminal 2 was just especially uninspiring, in my opinion.
The good news is that over the past several years, construction has taken place on Terminal 3, which is the airport’s brand new terminal. That terminal was inaugurated on April 22, with a phrased opening, which has wrapped up as of today, June 9, 2026. So the move to Terminal 3 is now complete!
Not only does this represent a much needed capacity increase, but the new terminal is also much nicer aesthetically than the other two terminals.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen all Terminal 2 airlines move to Terminal 3. After all, the new terminal has the capacity for 19 million annual passengers, while the old terminal had the capacity for 15 million annual passengers. As you can see below, airlines moved to the new terminal in four phases, and the last one took place today.
I should also mention that Condor, Frankfurt’s second largest airline, will be moving to Terminal 3 as well, but only in the summer of 2027. So that’s still a ways off, as the airline currently operates from Terminal 1.
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. Based on what I’ve heard, there have been some reliability issues, though.
Which lounges does Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3 have?
With the full opening of Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3, what’s the lounge situation like? For context, Terminal 2 used to have the Air France Lounge, Emirates Lounge, Japan Airlines Lounge, Primeclass Lounge, and Priority Lounge.
As of now, three lounges are open in Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3:
- There’s the SkyTeam Lounge, which is 550 square meters (6,920 square feet), and it’s 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
- There’s the Emirates Lounge, which is open exclusively to Emirates passengers, as you’d expect
- There’s the Priority Lounge, which is located in the non-Schengen area, and it’s the Priority Pass and contract lounge used by most other airlines
What about lounges beyond that? As you can see, currently no Schengen lounges are open, so that’s pretty limiting. We know for sure that Air France will be opening a Schengen lounge, and it shouldn’t take too much longer until that opens.
One big question is what the future holds when it comes to a non-Schengen oneworld 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 one airline. However, the rumor I’ve heard is that Qatar Airways will be opening a lounge in the terminal (which would be awesome news), but that hasn’t been formally announced.
Lastly, while German airline Condor has never operated its own lounge, one certainly wonders if the airline might finally do that, when it moves to Terminal 3 in the summer of 2027.
What does the future hold for Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2?
With Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2 no longer having passenger traffic, what’s next for the terminal? After all, the airport didn’t invest billions to build a new terminal that’s only marginally bigger than the old one, without having a long term plan.
With Terminal 2 now closed, the plan is for there to be a €1.5 billion redevelopment, though not any time soon. That project is expected to start around 2030, and it’ll likely be around the mid-2030s before the terminal is open to passenger traffic.
Now, it remains to be seen what actually happens there, in terms of which airlines occupy the terminal. We know that Lufthansa wants to take over Terminal 2, but we’ll see if the airline is given the entire terminal, or how the capacity is distributed.
Frankfurt isn’t exactly a huge origin & destination market, so if the airport is going to see meaningful growth, that’ll just come down to Lufthansa (or perhaps Condor) growing significantly, especially for connecting traffic.
Bottom line
Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3 is now fully operational, with all airlines operating from Terminal 2 having completed their move. 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, and I look forward to passing through this terminal soon.
When it comes to lounges, we’ve already seen the opening of the SkyTeam Lounge, Priority Lounge, Emirates Lounge, in the non-Schengen area. We can also expect a new lounge from Air France soon, along with some sort of a non-Schengen oneworld lounge.
What do you make of the new Frankfurt Airport Terminal 3?
Terminal 3 so far is meh. Dirty, mess…connecting train to T1 works now, but you have to walk a lot anyway, like in a maze…90 minutes gate to gate. It is Allegris in terminals…
Not speaking about Terminal 1, super crowded, dirty, messy and now Priority Pass lounge airside
Typical German sterility. What a boring terminal.
In the beginning photo , the long terminal arm at the bottom appears to be translucent plastic , with nothing within .
I prefer Terminal one , which is an actual building .
It’s a model. That will be the Schengen pier
I am just as surprised as you are Ben. Its open, but Skyline is down. Well it will now push the Brits to expand Heathrow, as they won't accept Frankfurt being the largest airport in Europe. Lots of fields preserved around Heathrow. Of course it will be at least a 10 year mess.
I like the Asian airports, yes they are big but they are easy to navigate, not including Singapore. Japan, Hong Kong,...
I am just as surprised as you are Ben. Its open, but Skyline is down. Well it will now push the Brits to expand Heathrow, as they won't accept Frankfurt being the largest airport in Europe. Lots of fields preserved around Heathrow. Of course it will be at least a 10 year mess.
I like the Asian airports, yes they are big but they are easy to navigate, not including Singapore. Japan, Hong Kong, etc are excellent. And when they open, they work. I was in HK when the new one opened up, they shifted from the downtown one to the new one over nite ! No hitches. Amazing.
Paris CDG is the largest airport in Europe at 3257 hectares , and FRA is 2300 hectares . LHR is around 1300 hectares, albeit the busiest
What did you smoke? When HKG was opened it was a big mess and the head of civil service was called to the legislature for explanation
News headline at that time - dead lobster due to chaos
Apparently, the opening of the Schengen lounge, at least for AF/KL/SK is delayed a bit.
A Qatar Airways Lounge would probably follow protocol of other outstation QR lounges, only business class and First class flying QR allowed. No Fun! :-(
That's not the London lounge policy. I have used it flying Malaysian business (and it isn't the designated lounge for Malaysian).
Sully, glad to see you still around! When everything went-down late-February, I was asking/hoping you were alright (over at VFTW). Phew!
The China Airlines website warns: "Due to the distance and the need to move between the south (T3) and north (T1/T2) sides of the airport, you should allow at least 90 minutes to 2 hours for transfers between Terminal 3 and the train stations."
So if Frankfurt actually is your origin or destination and you want to use the best way to get to and from the airport -- the train -- you should pack a lunch.
I thought the new SkyLine train may not be fully running yet, so airside and land-side buses are the main transport between terminals. Maybe 2 hours is if switching between Schengen and non-Schengen. There’s also security. I wouldn’t want any less than a 2-hour connection time if flying in from as far as Taipei anyway.
FOX and Allegris will make of FRA the busiest airport ever!
Condor will be running their own lounge in T3. Potentially announced together with their own loyalty scheme. Exiting times.
I agree with Lucas about the Skytrain. The bus alternative is awful when I did it two days ago.
On the lounge front, the Emirates one is now operating. The Priority Lounge is ok but nothing to get excited about.
Reliability issues for the SkyLine (ppl mover between terminals) is a nice way to put it. The whole system is down and will remain out of order for at least a couple weeks. They have buses running for now, but they take more than twice as long and there’s not enough space for people and luggage. Quite the shitshow
It wouldn't be Germany if it wasn't a total shitshow hiding behind a smug veneer of self assurance
Nice news, makes me want to consider Lufthansa via FRA even if MUC may still be better. When might you be likely to check out this new terminal?
Lufthansa doesn’t use the new terminal 3, it’s pretty much all the non Star Alliance airlines that use T3
Very cool for FRA! (Now, when's the new T1 and T6/7 at JFK gonna start to open... some say late-June...)
Thank you FRA, very cool!
FRA is a ghastly airport with miles of walking as they've torn up all the moving walkways, elevators torn out to make room for more shops and a prevailing dark dank attitude of suspicion. The dead-set worst place to enter Europe