Terminal 3
Building the future

The area in the airport's south where the new Terminal 3 is now nearing completion shape has a long history of innovation. On July 8, 1936 an airship port with a gigantic airship hangar opened there. But after the Hindenburg – one of the largest airships ever built – went up in flames during a landing in 1937 while the world watched, the Zeppelin era also came to an abrupt end at Frankfurt.

Starting in October 1997, representatives of the government of the state of Hesse, residents of the surrounding communities, citizens’ initiatives, employers’ associations and trade unions begin a two-year mediation process to define the general parameters for enlarging the airport. In June  2000, the government of the German state of Hesse decides in favor of the expansion. Soon afterward, Fraport AG's supervisory board officially approves the project.

Forty-six architecture firms all over Europe submit their ideas for Frankfurt Airport's new terminal. On June 28, 2002, Foster + Partners of London wins the architectural competition by convincing the jury with a modern, sustainable concept.  Frankfurt-based architect Christoph Mäckler then prevails against nine rivals in the subsequent contest to see who will implement it, with his credo of “modern with a feel-good ambiance”.

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The decision to approve the zoning plan meets the prerequisites for expanding the airport. It defines which construction projects and infrastructural measures Fraport will implement. In connection with building Terminal 3, the resolution also includes enlarging the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway and building a new Sky Line people mover line connecting Terminal 3 to Terminals 1 and 2.

Another milestone is reached with the approval for Terminal 3 to be built. The plans call for Piers H and J and the main terminal building to be built in the first phase. The permit also stipulates that the Sky Line people mover station will be built in an elevated position alongside the terminal drive-by platform. The original plans had called for it it to be on the terminal building's ground level. From the start, a modular planning approach will make it possible to additionally expand Terminal 3 depending on capacity requirements.

A very special day: after more than 15 years of intensive planning, approval processes and tests, the official starting gun goes off at Frankfurt Airport for one of Europe’s largest privately funded infrastructure projects. Four hundred Fraport employees and 200 invited politicians and business leaders participate in this special event.

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Immediately after the groundbreaking ceremony in October 2015, the first phase of construction begins: dry excavation. In just a few months, an area spanning 65,900 square meters is dug out. To accomplish this, each day excavators remove enough soil to fill around 300 dump trucks. At the peak of activity, it amounts to 5,500 cubic meters a day. When the work is finished, the entire area of the future Terminal 3 has been dug out to a depth of 5.5 meters.

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Terminal 3 will also be easy to reach by car, taxi and bus. To ensure this, work begins to build new access roads and enlarge the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway. The first major construction project is for the access and exit ramps for the elevated drive-by platform. First a total of 48 piles 1.2 meters in diameter and up to 18 meters long are driven into the ground. This stabilizes the substrate so the ramps will have a strong foundation.

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Special excavators dig down another eight to 11 meters underwater until the pit has reached its final depth below the water table. To prevent any more water from entering it, first the pit is sealed by placing retaining walls up to 14 meters long. Specially trained divers then prepare its bottom for pouring the concrete foundation. After the concrete has cured to the desired hardness, the water is pumped out, filtered and returned to the groundwater.

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The new system supplements the existing Sky Line people mover line. It too will be  driverless. Travelers using it take only eight minutes to get between the long-distance and regional train stations at one end and Terminal 3 at the other. They can use a brief stop at the enlarged station at Terminal 2 to change between the existing Sky Line route and the new system. The people movers will run every two minutes, attaining speeds of up to 80 km/h at ground level and on the elevated sections of the route.

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To gain additional capacity, in 2018 – well before the Covid-19 pandemic – Fraport decides to move the construction of Pier G forward. The original plans had called for it to be built later. Pier G is a full-fledged, state-of-the-art  terminal facility with lean, uncomplicated processes and capacity for carrying up to five million travelers a year. The project is awarded to the general contractor in late 2018, and work on it begins in June 2019.

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After the below-ground work is finished, the structure begins climbing skyward step by step: the work to build Piers J and H with an integrated apron tower starts in the first half of 2019. They are part of the first construction phase for the new terminal. Together, the two piers will have a total of 24 adjacent aircraft parking positions. While Pier H will have two levels for Schengen passengers, Pier J will be equipped with three levels for non-Schengen travelers. At the end of this construction phase, both piers are seamless shells. 

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The proverbial heart of Terminal 3 will be where many passengers begin and/or end their journeys. The departure hall is impressive with its 18-meter-high ceiling and surrounding glazed exterior. Here travelers can easily and conveniently check in and drop off their luggage. After clearing the security check, they can relax and enjoy themselves in a retail and lounge area spanning 6,200 square meters and a generously dimensioned marketplace with numerous shops, restaurants and cafés.

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Taxis and private cars can use the drive-by platform to stop right in front of the entrance to Terminal 3's departure hall. One ramp leads up to it, and the other lets vehicles drive back down and access the connecting network of roads. First the main load-bearing system of the 14.5-meter-high structure is built. The drive-by platform is securely held up by 13-meter-long large-diameter bored piles and 28 reinforced steel frames resting on V-shaped supports at right angles to them.

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Passengers in transit, passengers taking the train to Frankfurt Airport and everyone else will reach Terminal 3 in comfort. To enable this, Fraport is installing a new Sky Line route. It will be supported by a large maintenance building and a new station in front of Terminal 1. All of them are built in close quarters in between other facilities without interrupting operations – a major engineering and logistical feat! Work on the bored piles for the route also gets started in July 2019.

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The underground construction work is finalized as concrete is poured into the last water-filled pit. Next to it, the foundation of the main building is already taking shape. As soon as the underwater concrete is dry, the water is pumped out. By this time, 670,000 cubic meters of soil have been excavated and 40,000 cubic meters of underwater concrete poured. The underground construction work is now finished, and the entire area of the future main terminal building is ready for work on the carcass to start.

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So that the 12 vehicles of the new Sky Line people mover can be regularly serviced, a maintenance building is taking shape east of Terminal 2. The preparations begin in February 2020, followed in mid-March by work to build the carcass. The building actually consists of  two adjacent structures that also contain the operations control center and a warehouse for materials. The core structure has seven levels, while the maintenance hall only has two.

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The new parking structure is just a stone's throw from the main terminal building and provides direct access to it. When the terminal is inaugurated in 2026, 8,500 parking spaces will be available. The parking structure has a total of 240,000 square meters of floorspace, roughly equivalent to 34 soccer fields. To relieve the parking facilities in the north of the airport, starting in 2024 about 2,500 of the spaces will begin to be used for holiday parking. Passengers will ride shuttle buses to and from Terminals 1 and 2.

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So that travelers using Pier G can also enjoy a state-of-the-art experience, in mid-2020 attention focuses on technology. First the larger installations and the exterior are completed, then work proceeds to flesh out the interior. Tradespeople of many professions work together on the pier, which is initially 400 meters long. A total of 160,000 cubic meters of flooring concrete, 20,000 meters of heating and refrigerant pipes and 9,500 meters of ventilation ducts are needed to fill the interior of Pier G with life.

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Since the cornerstone ceremony in April 2019, the main terminal building has been steadily growing upward. By the fall of 2020, the shells of all of the below-ground levels have been finished. While work to complete the carcass continues on the upper levels, installation of the technical systems starts in the cellar. In the main building alone, about 290 kilometers of pipes for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are laid – that's equivalent to the distance between Frankfurt and Munich!

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The roof of the main terminal building is about the size of two-and-a-half soccer fields. The decision is therefore made to divide it into sections and push them into place from one side. In May, the construction site is prepared for the heavy equipment needed to accomplish this. The supports are installed in the summer, and in the fall the heavy-duty cranes go into action. They lift the roof sections up and shove them into their final positions.

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Travelers wishing to use public transportation to get to Terminal 3 will start their journey here: the new Sky Line station at Terminal 1. It is taking shape between Terminal 1 and the Sheraton Hotel just a few minutes' walk from the regional and long-distance train stations. First the supports for this new above-ground station are installed. Then its body is built, followed by the connections between it and the terminal, the train stations and the Sheraton Hotel.

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The carcass of the new apron control tower at Pier H has reached its final height of nearly 70 meters above the ground. The turret's shell, extending up  another six meters, has already been finished. Work on the exterior and technical systems will begin in the summer of 2021. Large angled glass panes will give the apron controllers a 300-degree view. The tower contains Terminal 3's tallest elevator.

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Twenty steel girders have to be installed to support the roof, requiring the use of a special crawler crane with an overall length of 127.4 meters; the parts for it are delivered by 45 trucks and assembled in just three days. Then the crane is used to lift the girders, each of which weighs about 31 tonnes, one at a time from the storage site in front of the main terminal building and insert them into the provided recesses.

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Work on the first phase of building Pier G will be largely finished in Depending on how the demand develops, Fraport AG will have the option of opening Pier G, with capacity for up to five million passengers a year, earlier than the rest of Terminal 3. The entire terminal will begin operating in 2026. Pier G has been designed to handle direct flights to classic holiday destinations in the Schengen and non-Schengen regions.

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To optimally link the new Terminal 3 to the region's surrounding network of roads, the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway is expanded by adding a new bridge structure. First, piles are driven into the ground to support the 142-meter-long, four-section structure. Then, in mid-2021, the motorway is closed in the middle of the night in order to deliver and install an entire bridge section on each side of the motorway. The enlarged interchange can start being used in the first quarter of 2022.

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To install the roof of the main terminal building, five steel sections weighing about 2000 tonnes each have to be individually assembled. Then, with the aid of an auxiliary construction, they are pushed one after the other onto the roof from one side on rails. Assembly of the roof’s first segment takes place in January 2022, and the last one reaches its final position in the fall of 2022.

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After passing technical tests, the new pier is approved on schedule in mid-April 2022 and placed in standby mode. Depending on how passenger volumes develop, it can be put into operation earlier than the other parts of Terminal 3. This will make it possible to handle up to five million more passengers a year. A 12-month lead time will be needed to complete the final installations and tests before opening.

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Terminal 3 is growing fast. And even faster progress is being made on the access roads. A total of 10 kilometers of roads are being built for the new terminal. Many parts of them are already finished and can be driven on. And on August 19 another large section is added when part of the expanded Zeppelinheim interchange starts operating. This directly benefits northbound vehicles heading for CargoCity South, which they can now reach faster and more directly.

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The apron controllers are responsible for the aircraft taxiing on Terminal 3's apron. In August 2022 the turret of the apron controller at Pier H is fitted with 15 glass panes to ensure an unobstructed 300-degree view. The workers use suspended scaffolds to do their jobs at a height of over 60 meters. After this balancing act, work starts to install a wide range of equipment on the inside. 

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Each of the first two cars of the transportation system, which are 11 meters long and weigh about 30 tonnes, reach Frankfurt Airport on two lowboy trucks from their Vienna-based manufacturer. After arriving, they are lifted by a crane up onto the 17-meter-high track. They are then taken to the new maintenance facility to be prepared for the first test trips.

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Passenger start and end their journeys in the main terminal building. The gigantic check-in hall is impressively designed. The most awesome part: an 18-meter-high glazed window front consisting of 700 individual glass panes mounted on a steel substructure. Millimetere precise is required to do this, which in part involves overhead installation work. The steel struts are slender and inconspicuous to highlight the intricate glass facade.

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Between April 2020 and May 2023, one of Europe’s largest parking facilities is built close to the main building of Terminal 3. It has spaces for 8,500 vehicles to park on eight levels, including spaces equipped with chargers for electric vehicles. After the terminal begins operating in 2026, the power for them will come from a rooftop photovoltaic system . There are also about 300 spaces for parking bicycles.

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The enlarged Zeppelinheim motorway interchange is opened for traffic. As a result, the road linking Terminal 3 to Germany's highway network is now finished. About 10 kilometers of new roads connect T3 to the airport’s two other terminals, the A5 motorway and CargoCity South. The predicted traffic volumes illustrate the importance of this road connection to Terminal 3: up to 20,000 vehicles a day will use it. 

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There are two combined heat and cold generation plants beneath the main terminal building, called CGP east and CGP west for short. Heat and cold will be distributed from here to the individual buildings. Environmentally friendly technology is also used. Recooling systems on the roof of the main terminal building and a heat recovery solution ensure efficient energy use. The energy generated by the two plants together would be enough to meet the needs of more than 4,000 single-family homes.

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In the first test trip in October, one of the new people mover trains very slowly travels just a few meters on the finished route. All of the new vehicles are now being gradually put through their paces on a separate test track – first manually and then in automatic mode. After the new Terminal 3 opens in 2026, the fully automatic vehicles will carry up to 4,000 passengers an hour in each direction between it and Terminal 1 with a stop at Terminal 2. The travel time is just under eight at a top speed of 80 km/h.

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A real eye-catcher is now being completed: a unique so-called "drop ceiling" in the main terminal building's central marketplace. Consisting of 25,000 meters of aluminum tubing, this ceiling art is yet another attraction that will motivate passengers to spend time in the marketplace with its many boutiques, shops and restaurants.

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The carcass of Terminal 3’s apron control tower has been finished, and work to complete its interior is proceeding. Workplaces for a total of eight controllers are being created in the completely glazed turret on the tower’s 14th level. An excellent view of the apron will let them monitor traffic adjacent to the runways and ensure the safety of aircraft and ground vehicles.

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The first jet bridges arrive in Frankfurt in early April. A total of 41 bridges are being transported from the Port of Rotterdam by land straight to the Terminal 3 construction site.  After Terminal 3 begins operating in 2026, passengers departing from Piers H and J will use them to board their flights. To ensure the most pleasant experience possible, the jet bridges – which can be extended to a length of up to 41 meters – are glazed all around.

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Work to build the new line connecting the terminals has finished, and the vehicles can now travel along it. To make sure that the new Sky Line transports passengers safely and securely after Terminal 3 opens and that all boardings and exits take place smoothly, a large number of test trips are being carried out over the course of several months. The 12 vehicles are thoroughly tested in the maintenance building, at the stations and along the 5.6-kilometer-long route before they begin operating.

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In October 2024, Pier H and the apron control tower are inspected and approved by the authorities and fire department. Both parts of the project have therefore now been officially finished. The first and biggest hurdle for beginning operation has been cleared. By 2026, when the new Terminal 3 opens its doors, all of the remaining work on the pier will have been finished and the required tests passed actross all areas.

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A unique eye-catcher has been taking shape in the Berlin studio of artist Julius von Bismarck’s since November 2024. After Terminal 3 opens in 2026, everyone who enters the check-in hall should look up: a gigantic work of installation art suspended from the 18-meter-high ceiling will challenge the limits of our perception.

Every airport in the world is designated by a code consisting of three letters. The one for Frankfurt Airport comprises the letters F, R and A or, expressed in the so-called radio alphabet, “Foxtrot,” “Romeo” and “Alpha.” A larger-than-life version of this three-letter code is displayed in front of the main building of Terminal 3. One of its hallmarks, it will be accessible to everyone after the terminal opens. 

Terminal 3 is being equipped with state-of-the-art aviation security check systems that include CT scanners. CT stands for "computer tomography," the medical uses of which are well-known. It quickly and reliably detects and differentiates materials and objects. As a result, passengers can leave liquids, smartphones and other electronic devices in their hand luggage. It greatly simplifies the process and significantly reduces the amount of time that passengers spend waiting in line.

A broad retail mix enhances the airport’s importance as a major international hub and excels with a clear customer focus and innovations. When Terminal 3 begins operating, passengers will enjoy 64 retail and service units. The heart of this shopping paradise is a central marketplace with a spectacular "drop" ceiling. Fifteen retail outlets, a bar and two food courts with seating for almost a thousand people will invite guests to spend time exploring and enjoying themselves.

Piers H and J of the new Terminal 3 have a total of 24 bridgeheads, to which 41 mobile jet bridges have now been attached as planned. When the terminal begins operating in 2026, passengers will use them to board aircraft. Each jet bridge has three articulated sections that can be flexibly collapsed or extended as required. All of them are glazed all around to admit plenty of light, provide an impressive view of the apron and ensure a pleasant feeling of spaciousness.

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Pier J passes inspection by the authorities and fire department. 600 meters long with nearly 27,000 square meters of space, it is the longest and largest of the new piers and reserved for non-Schengen traffic. Each of its 14 adjacent aircraft parking positions is equipped with two jet bridges and is designed to accommodate all types of aircraft, including wide-body airliners such as the A380. The completion of Pier J is yet another puzzle piece of  the modular Terminal 3 project, which will have capacity for up to 19 million passengers a year after it starts operating in 2026. 

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One of Europe's largest construction projects is nearing completion. Most of the new terminal’s buildings are already standing. In the final phase, their interiors will take shape. Use the timeline to track the process and milestones of this mammoth undertaking.