Changing planes in Frankfurt
 

I've heard Frankfurt is a huge airport. What do you frequent fliers think is the minimum amount of time to have for a layover when coming from either Miunich or Salzburg and connecting to Lufthansa?? There is a Munich flight with an hour to connect but I don't trust that. There is one with 2 hours and then lots with longer layovers

What do you think? This would be in May 2013

Thanks in advance

connecting to where? to other Schengen couny=quick or to non-Schengen country,US=time consuming?

I think you could just make the 2 hour connection if it's a domestic flight and you don't have to clear passport control (I don't know where your flight is going), but if you have to do passports and security, 4 hours is better. You also want to factor in a little wriggle room if your flight is delayed. Why not choose a bit more time and save yourself the worry? You're right, Frankfurt is huge, although well-organised and accommodating to people on layovers, and there are two terminals, which are joined by Skytrain. There are _always_ mega-queues for passports and security and it would be a royal pain to get stuck in them and watch your plane go up, up and away!

Lavandula

In October, I had the "pleasure" of flying through Frankfurt.

It's more than huge. I had about 1 1/2 hour layover. My plane landed in Terminal A, my flight to the states was in Terminal Z.

It was a combination of walking fast and resting, as I was with my 86 year old mother. Luckily there were some moving sidewalks along the way, or we'd still be in Frankfurt.

I plan to avoid this terminal on all future trips to Europe.

IMHO it's large but not as bad as either CDG or LHR.

Where are the flights to and from - and will you have to go throungh Immigration - which can add significantly to your time.

Two hours at least for domestic and four for international

I had two hours to make a plane change there on my way to Africa a few years ago, and I swear it was like running a 5k race from the minute I landed. The place is enormous. I also got roughly groped from head to toe by two female TSA sumo wrestlers. Hate that airport!

What I wrote on another thread:

Last summer we were on a flight from Nice to SF via Frankfurt and Calgary with only 45 minutes for the transfer in Frankfurt. We would never have made it except for the fact that my wife and a bad ankle and the wheelchair attendant ran through the terminal and commandeered the two elevators we had to take (she congratulated me on being in good shape). We also had to go through passport control, and there also she managed to get us through without waiting on line. We made it to the gate with 5 minutes to spare (and then the plane was 30 minutes late in loading). One checked luggage made the transfer, the other did not.

You will have to go through immigration and possibly customs (generally customs is just walking through with no questions asked), orient yourself to find the next gate and hope that it is not as far from your landing gate as ours was.

Ugh, Frankfurt...give yourself as much time as possible, it's endless! Not to mention I find it is very easy to get lost, though I've been there several times. Two hours minimum!

Thanks all. We will have spent two weeks in Germany and Salzburg and will be returning to Denver. We would only have to show our passports and go thru security in either Munich or Salzburg. Then fly to Frankfurt to connect to flight to Denver. I think I'll leave three hours to connect as I hate running thru airports.

It is not just either Munich or Salzburg.

You show your passport and do a security check at Munich or Salzburg AND again do an even more time consuming version of each at FRA.

I have gone through FRA just after a security problem on a trans-Atlantic flight, and I had to go through a second luggage check. That time, it took about 90 minutes to get to the departure lounge.

Three hours should be sufficient.

Frankfurt isn't as bad as CDG or LHR but it is such a disappointing airport because it's so unGerman. It's badly organized and sloppy.
You might do it in 1 hour.
It will be pushing it pretty fine though.
If you can change your flight then I would recommend doing that. If you can't then make sure you are at the front of your arriving flight so you can quickly hop off and if you need to go through passport control then just go straight to the front of the queue.
Will be VERY tight though.

Hope it helps!

Neville :-)
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greg is correct. You do the whole thing again in Frankfurt, even if you stay airside. It is the only way in which Heathrow is better than FRA.

Could you fly Lufthansa direct from Munich to the US, then change for Denver? Munich has a beautiful, efficient airport that is not as crowded as FRA. If I were going any where in central Europe I would try very hard to go through there.

Thanks everybody. I think we'll take Delta and return from Munich via Atlanta. How is immigration for Americans in Atlanta?