GERMANY. Fraport has marked the start of above-ground construction of Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3, one of Europe’s largest privately-financed infrastructure projects. The company is to invest up to €4 billion (US$4.4 billion) in the project.
During periods of peak activity, up to 5,000 construction workers a day and around 75 tower cranes will be working on the Terminal 3 site.
Pier G, with capacity for up to five million passengers, will be completed by 2021 in the southern part of Frankfurt Airport, Fraport said.
The plans call for the main terminal building, along with Piers H and J, to be completed in 2023. The airport will then be able to handle up to 21 million more passengers. There will be an option to add a Pier K to increase the new terminal’s total capacity to 25 million air travellers annually.
Guests and construction workers this week attended a ceremony to lay the cornerstone and fill and brick in a time capsule.
Participants included Dr Thomas Schäfer, Minister of Finance of the German state of Hesse, and architect Prof. Christoph Mäckler, as well as Fraport’s Executive Board Chairman, Dr Stefan Schulte, and its Supervisory Board Chairman, Karlheinz Weimar.
Dr Schulte said: “We are building the future with Terminal 3 – for Frankfurt Airport, the entire Rhine-Main region and far beyond. By employing state-of-the-art technology and intelligent processes to create an outstanding passenger experience, we are meeting the promise inherent in our slogan, ‘Gute Reise! We make it happen’.
“With the new terminal, we are adding sufficient capacity for about 21 million more travellers annually by the year 2023. Frankfurt is already an international leader in terms of connectivity.
“No other aviation hub in the world offers more destinations to business or leisure travellers than Frankfurt Airport. And Terminal 3 will further strengthen Germany’s most important gateway to the world.”
