It is well known from the capital’s BER airport that airport terminals often finish with years of delays.

In Frankfurt, at Germany's largest airport, one terminal is probably finished years too early - the new Pier G of the future third terminal.

Strictly speaking, however, the Fraport Group only kept to the schedule it had set itself.

The additional aircraft that were supposed to dock at Pier G are now missing simply because of the drop in traffic caused by the corona pandemic.

Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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But Fraport is convinced that this will only be the case temporarily.

By 2026 at the latest, the number of take-offs, landings and travelers should be so large that the two existing terminals will be too narrow.

To put it positively, Fraport will have enough time for tests once the construction work for Pier G is complete.

The last official approvals - especially for fire protection - are still pending.

Tests to determine whether automatic doors open and close correctly, whether the baggage handling system always takes suitcases to where they are supposed to go and whether the ventilation system is running correctly are now pending before Fraport officially takes over the building in a few weeks.

room for growth

To put it more critically, a phase of vacancy management then begins, in which the lights, water pipes and other installations have to be kept in good condition.

The installation of information screens for passengers has been dispensed with for the time being.

At BER they were getting on in years when the first travelers finally stood in front of them.

Fraport designed the new building to be more spacious, less angled, with higher ceilings and overall brighter than Terminal 1.

When piers H and J are also completed in 2026, terminal three should offer space for an additional 19 million travelers a year.

A final expansion stage can create space for a total of 25 million passengers.

Düsseldorf Airport or the old Berlin Tegel Airport had roughly the same number before the pandemic.

What is an expansion for Fraport would be a complete airport elsewhere.

Only the runway did not have to be built in Frankfurt, there has been room for growth since the Northwest runway opened in 2011.

In 2021, however, Fraport only had 45 million passengers due to the pandemic.

In the record year of 2019, when the airport operator also estimated that the existing terminals were very full, there were 70.5 million.

The 4-billion-euro Terminal 3 project was intended to bring relief – built on the site of the former US air base.

One of the largest multi-storey car parks in Europe with more than 8,000 parking spaces has been built in front of the terminal entrance.

Which voyages should depart from Pier G?

Because the extension is being built to the south of the runways while the existing structures are on the boarding side, a driverless train is expected to take travelers from the airport station around the runways in 8 minutes.

However, it is not finished yet.

If the pandemic hadn't intervened, Fraport would have wanted to bus travelers back and forth between the north and south sides.

Some airlines were therefore critical of the original opening date for Pier G.

There is no S-Bahn station there, space was kept free for its subsequent construction.

It has not been finally determined which airlines will one day dock at the 13 gates of Pier G.

After considerations became known that Ryanair and Wizzair could move there, the building had the designation "low-cost airline terminal" gone.

The fact that there are advanced plans to handle holiday airlines such as Tuifly with direct travelers to Mallorca, Gran Canaria or Antalya at Pier G was no longer significant.

Recently, the Irish company of Ryanair, which had used an incentive program with fee discounts for its expansion in Frankfurt, which has since expired, announced that it would close its base on the Main again.

They do not completely rule out a return for the future, but for the time being Wizzair has also taken Frankfurt out of the program.

In the meantime, Fraport is also using the lower volume of travel to convert existing buildings - in line with the forecast that new passenger records are possible from 2026.

In front of terminal one, the starting station for the new train to the south side of the airport will be set entirely on stilts.

Security checkpoints and counters will also be relocated to increase the transfer area in the oldest terminal.

Fraport intends to make the nucleus of the airport the sole home of its largest customer, Lufthansa.

Airlines that do not belong to their frequent flyer alliance Star Alliance should therefore be given preference to the growing Piers H and J of the third terminal.

The extent to which the consequences of the pandemic will force new considerations is still open.

And then there's the hope of a faster recovery.

Fraport already declared during the construction phase that Pier G would not be quiet for four years.

The opening of the new building could also be brought forward.

However, a lead time of 12 months would be necessary in order to be unlocked and ready for operation.