Frankfurt Main Airport

The airport site is centrally located in the FrankfurtRhineMain metropolitan region – and in fact about twelve kilometers southwest of Frankfurt’s city center, largely in Frankfurt’s city forest. Frankfurt Airport is officially a district of Frankfurt am Main, but has only about 200 inhabitants in an area of 24 square kilometers. The southern part of the airport site partially covers the territory of the cities of Rüsselsheim am Main and Mörfelden-Walldorf. Part of the western site is located on the territory of the city of Kelsterbach.

Frankfurt Airport is connected to the Deutsche Bahn rail network via two stations. Regional express, regional rail and S-Bahn trains on lines S8 and S9 travel via the airport regional station in front of Terminal 1 (Hall B). Since December 2019, the Gateway Gardens industrial park at the airport has also been connected to the airport loop via a new line with its Gateway-Gardens station.

During the day, S-Bahn trains run every 15 minutes to Frankfurt am Main main station, to Frankfurt city center via the Frankfurt City Tunnel and on to Offenbach am Main or Hanau. In the opposite direction, trains continue from Frankfurt Airport via Rüsselsheim am Main and either Mainz or Mainz-Kastel to Wiesbaden. The Mainz central station is served every 30 minutes via the S8 line, alternatively the Wiesbaden district of Mainz-Kastel (via S9). Travel time to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is 13 minutes, to Hauptwache in the city center it is about 17 minutes. Regional express trains continue via Rüsselsheim am Main and Mainz to Saarbrücken or Koblenz.

The airport’s long-distance train station is located between Highway 3 and Highway 43 and is connected to Terminal 1 via a closed bridge. Only ICE long-distance trains run on schedule in the long-distance station, with the exception of regional train line 58. The four-track station was built to relieve the regional station as part of the new Cologne-Rhine/Main line and was opened in 1999. The office and hotel building The Squaire was opened above the long-distance train station in 2011.

Freeway 3 (A 3) has been running east-west along the northern edge of Frankfurt Airport since 1956, and the A 5, which was opened as early as 1935, runs east of the airport. Both freeways meet at Frankfurter Kreuz in the immediate vicinity of the airport. With around 335,000 vehicles per day, it is one of the busiest road junctions in Europe. Parallel to the A 3, the B 43 highway carries most of the feeder traffic between the Kelsterbach, Flughafen and Flughafen-Nord junctions.

Frankfurt Airport is connected to the public bus systems of local and regional transportation companies.

Bus lines 58 and X58 connect the Frankfurt (Main) Höchst train station with the airport. On the way to the terminal station Terminal 1, the bus lines serve two other stops on the airport grounds, Lufthansa Aviation Center and Lufthansa Base. City bus line 61 runs from Frankfurt (Main) South Station via Terminal 2 and Airport Gate 3 to the Terminal 1 stop, while line 62 runs between the airport and Frankfurt-Schwanheim. Line X77 connects Frankfurt South Station via Gateway Gardens with CargoCity South.

There are also long-distance bus connections to Hahn Airport in Rhineland-Palatinate, among other places. Feeder connections are also becoming increasingly important, for example the AirLiner shuttle bus operated by HEAG mobilo, the Lufthansa Airport Bus and the TLS from Heidelberg. Many hotels from Frankfurt and the surrounding area also offer their own transfer service. During most major trade fairs in Frankfurt, there are also direct shuttle bus connections to Messe Frankfurt.