Flying Pterosaurs and Four-Legged Friends: Amazing Facts on the Travel Experience at Frankfurt Airport

During the summer holidays, more than 200,000 passengers a day arrive at or depart from Frankfurt Airport. While in the terminals, they do a lot of things including shopping, eating, drinking, watching movies, dropping off pets and coats, pushing their kids around in strollers, or resting and reading – and occasionally they also lose things. All this activity, in addition to the wide range of services provided at the airport, generates a host of interesting facts and figures: on everything from cooking pots and drills that wind up in the lost & found office all the way to lifelike replicas of prehistoric flying reptiles in the terminal.

Meet the Schmidt family. They are going on vacation―but what should they do with their pet while they’re gone? The Dog Hotel in CargoCity South at Frankfurt Airport lovingly accommodates around 700 to 800 canines a year. If you’re interested in taking advantage of its services, please send an email to [email protected].

Once their pet is in good hands, the parents and their children can relax and start the journey to their holiday destination. Inside the terminal building, little Johnie gets tired of walking―but they’ve left the stroller at home! Fortunately, they can rent one free of charge at the airport. In 2016, 2,977 parents and their kids took advantage of this service.

At the check-in counter, they can finally drop off their heavy suitcases and breathe a sigh of relief. Marked by tags, the bags disappear into an underground baggage handling system with a total length of around 80 kilometers, almost as much as the distance between Frankfurt and Heidelberg. The bags ride this roller coaster all the way to the correct exit for the family’s plane.

Meanwhile, the Schmidts have time to kill before heading to the gate and decide to enjoy the fascinating view from the Visitors’ Terrace in Terminal 2. If they are in Terminal 1, the easiest way for them to get there is by riding the Sky Line people mover: nine fully automated two-car electric trains that constantly shuttle back and forth between the two terminals. Each month they travel a total of nearly 80,000 kilometers and carry close to 800,000 people, including passengers, meeters and greeters, airport employees, visitors and shoppers.

When the kids disembark at Terminal 2 and see the “Evolution of Flight” exhibit right next to the station, their eyes light up! It features reconstructions of three flying pterosaurs suspended in the air. Together they weigh 253 kilos.

While their parents are explaining the exhibits, down below on the main floor of the terminal a business traveler has taken a seat in one of the green waiting areas to relax. He is looking with interest at one of the two hanging gardens on the walls, each of which covers about 135 square meters and contains 1,600 live plants.

Meanwhile, a backpacker takes advantage of her layover to freshen up and is pleased to find a towel, shampoo and a hair dryer in the airport shower facility. In 2016, the showers in the terminals were used 19,735 times.

At the same time, an elderly couple is sitting in the Quiet Room located in Pier Z of Terminal 1; they’re especially impressed by its golden ceiling, which weighs 1.5 metric tons. A group of young people is watching one of the 30 films that are available in the Movie Worlds at gates A58 and Z58 in Terminal 1. If they tried to watch all of the movies one after the other, it would take them more than 55 hours. To put that in perspective, the longest direct flight departing from Frankfurt is to Buenos Aires and takes about 13 hours. So during the time it took them to watch the movies, they could fly there and back twice.

Before the family, the business traveler and the backpacker board their planes, they watch a clip about New York City on a 21-meter-long LED video screen at the Entertainment Gate in Pier B. They’re all thrilled by the incredible resolution of this world premiere with no fewer than 5,806,080 pixels.

Curious Finds

More than 22,000 lost articles were collected at Frankfurt Airport in 2016. They include, besides less spectacular things like wallets, coats and eyeglasses, a few items that leave airport staff flabbergasted. If you’re missing your alligator clips, curtain rods or hand truck, you can contact the lost & found office in Terminal 1, Concourse A on Level 0 any day of the week between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The airport’s operator, Fraport, coined the slogan “Gute Reise! We make it happen” to express its commitment to serving passengers by meeting their individual needs and wishes. It regularly develops and introduces new services and facilities to keep improving the customer experience at Germany’s foremost transportation hub.

Travelers and visitors can find more detailed information on the many services offered at Frankfurt Airprot on the airport website, in the Service Shop, and on its Twitter,Facebook, Instagram and YouTube social media channels.