Frankfurt Airport (; , also known as Rhein-Main-Flughafen) is Germany's main international airport by passenger numbers and is located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres. It is operated by Fraport and serves as the main hub for Lufthansa, including Lufthansa CityLine and Lufthansa Cargo as well as Condor and AeroLogic. The airport covers an area of of land and features two passenger terminals with capacity for approximately 65 million passengers per year; four runways; and extensive logistics and maintenance facilities.
Frankfurt Airport is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany as well as the 6th busiest in Europe after Istanbul Airport, London–Heathrow, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport. The airport is also the 13th busiest worldwide by total number of passengers in 2016, with 60.786 million passengers using the airport in 2016. In 2017, Frankfurt Airport handled 64.5 million passengers and nearly 70 million in 2018. It also had a freight throughput of 2.076 million metric tonnes in 2015 and is the busiest airport in Europe by cargo traffic. As of 2022, Frankfurt Airport serves 330 destinations in 5 continents, making it the airport with the most direct routes in the world.
The southern side of the airport ground was home to the Rhein-Main Air Base, which was a major air base for the United States from 1947 until 2005, when the air base was closed and the property was acquired by Fraport (now occupied by Terminal 3). The airport celebrated its 80th anniversary in July 2016.
Location
Frankfurt Airport lies southwest of central Frankfurt, near the Autobahn interchange Frankfurter Kreuz, where two of the most heavily used motorways in Europe (A3 and A5) meet. The airport grounds, which form a city district of Frankfurt named Frankfurt-Flughafen, are surrounded by the Frankfurt City Forest. The southern portion of the airport grounds extend partially into the cities of Rüsselsheim am Main and Mörfelden-Walldorf, and a western portion of the grounds lie within the city of Kelsterbach.
The airport is centrally located in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, Germany's third-largest metropolitan region, which itself has a central location in the densely populated region of the west-central European megalopolis. Thereby, along with a strong rail and motorway connection, the airport serves as a major transport node for the greater region, less than two hours by ground to Cologne, the Ruhr Area, and Stuttgart.
History
First airport
On 16 November 1909, the world's first airline was founded in Frankfurt am Main: The Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG). DELAG then built the first airport in Frankfurt, called Airship Base at Rebstock, which was located in Bockenheim in the western part of the city and was primarily used for airships in the beginning. It opened in 1912 and was extended after World War I, but in 1924, an expert's report already questioned the possibility of further expansions at this location.
With the foundation of Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1926, a rapid boom of civilian air travel started, and soon the airship base became too small to handle the demand. Plans for a new and larger airport located in the Frankfurt City Forest south-west of Schwanheim were approved in 1930 but were not realized due to the Great Depression. After the Machtergreifung in 1933, the government revived the plans and started the construction of the new airport.
Second airport
A two-storey station building with a six-storey tower originated in 1935 on the northern part of the airport, as well as other operating and outbuildings for maintenance and storage of aircraft. The approximately 100 hectares runway received a grass cover.
The official opening of the new Flug- und Luftschiffhafen Rhein-Main took place on 8 July 1936. The first plane that landed was a Ju 52/3m. Six days later, on 14 July 1936, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin landed at the airport. In 1936, 800 tons of cargo and 58,000 passengers were transported, and in 1937 these figures increased to 70,000 passengers and 966 tons of cargo. In the coming years, the new airport was the home base for the two largest German airships, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ 129 Hindenburg. In 1938, Frankfurt was a central distribution point for the transport of airmail to North America.
On 6 May 1937, the Hindenburg, flying from Frankfurt to New York, exploded shortly before it was scheduled to dock at Lakehurst. 36 people died. The accident marked the end of scheduled airship traffic and the end of the airship era.