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Another key event: on October 14 the first vehicle for the new Sky Line people mover was delivered. Its two cars, each of which is 11 meters long and weighs about 30 metric tons, arrived at Frankfurt Airport on lowboy trucks. After arriving from the factory in Vienna where they had been built, they were lifted by cranes up to and onto the 17-meter-high tracks. Then they were driven into the new maintenance building where they are now being prepared for their first test trips.

Terminal 3 was growing fast, and the pace of work on the access roads was even quicker. Altogether, 10 kilometers of new ones were being built. Many sections had already been completed and were being used. And on August 19 another large piece of the puzzle fell into place when part of the expanded Zeppelinheim interchange started operating. Drivers arriving from the south and heading for CargoCity directly benefited from this, since they could now reach their destination faster. 

The project to enlarge the Zeppelinheim interchange is eliminating a crucial bottleneck. Once it is finished in early 2023, it will also allow northbound vehicles leaving CargoCity South to drive onto the A5. 

Once Terminal 3 begins operating, there will be considerably more aircraft taxiing around with guidance from the apron controllers. The cabin of the control tower at Pier H is designed to ensure an unobstructed 360-degree view. It was encased with 15 glass panes in August 2022. To perform this task at a height of more than 60 meters over the ground, the installers stood on suspended scaffolds while guiding the panes into place on the tower. After this balancing act was successfully completed, work began to flesh out the tower with equipment and technical installations of various kinds. 

To create the roof of the main terminal building, five steel sections have to be installed one by one.  The roof sections – weighing some 2.000 tonnes each – are first pre-assembled on an auxiliary construction, before being shoved onto the roof from one side via rails. Installation of the roof’s first segment took place in January 2022. The final element is scheduled to be placed into its position in the autumn of 2022.

After completion of its construction, Pier G was temporarily decommissioned due to low passenger volumes. It is now kept in stand-by mode. The current plans call for it to begin operating in 2026 along with the rest of Terminal 3. However, Pier G can begin operating even earlier, if needed.  A period of twelve months will be required for the last installations and tests, before Pier G can become fully operational.

The first phase of the work to build Pier G, which will have capacity for up to five million passengers a year, was largely completed before the end of 2021. Depending on how the demand situation develops as air travel volumes recover, Fraport AG has the option of putting it into operation earlier than the rest of Terminal 3. The main terminal building itself, including Piers H and J (for another 14 million passengers a year) presumably won’t be needed until 2026.

The landmark decision to approve the zoning plan met the prerequisites for expanding the airport by building a new runway and a new terminal. It defined the construction projects and infrastructural measures that Fraport would implement. The resolution also covered the enlargement of the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway and the construction of a new Sky Line people mover line to link Terminal 3 with Terminals 1 and 2.

A new bridge structure was installed to enlarge the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway and optimally link the new Terminal 3 to the surrounding network of roads. First, piles were installed to support the 142-meter-long, four-section structure. In mid-2021, the bridge sections were then brought to the site and lifted into place at night while the entire motorway was temporarily blocked to traffic. The plans called for the interchange to begin operating in the first quarter of 2022.

The impressive marketplace, featuring an exotic undulating steel ceiling 127.4 meters long, is the centerpiece of the main terminal building. Twenty steel girders had to be assembled to hold up the roof. Due to the marketplace’s location inside the main terminal building, it was necessary to use a special crawler crane. There were 45 truckloads of parts for the ceiling, which took three days to assemble. The crane carried the girders, weighing about 31 tonnes each, one at a time from the front of the building and lifted them into place.

The shell of the new apron control tower at Pier H reached its final height of nearly 70 meters. The shell of the turret, which extends six meters up above the tower’s shaft, had also already been completed. Beginning in the summer of 2021, this was followed by work to build the exterior and install various technical systems. Large angled glass panes will provide the controllers with a 300-degree view. The tower also boasts Terminal 3’s tallest elevator.