Frankfurt Airport opened their new Terminal 3 today. While there are other airports that open new terminals (e.g. Munich Airport also opened a new Terminal 1 Pier), Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 3 is an entirely new terminal, with a migration plan for a large number of longhaul airlines. This means that lots of premium passengers now get an entirely new departures experience, including a new check-in area, as well as a new departures hall, with new shops, restaurants, and lounges.
In this post, I’ll collate all we know so far about the lounges that are appearing at Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3. Excitingly I have a flight booked through there in the upcoming months, and I’m looking forward to checking out a couple of these new lounges…maybe.
Frankfurt Airport’s New Terminal 3 Opens
Frankfurt Airport opened their new Terminal 3 today, which is an exciting development. Terminal 3 is described as a 4-billion-euro light-flooded design with a 6,000 sq. m marketplace, with a “modern, lively urban environment” and a “feel-good ambiance”.
Frankfurt Airport’s T3 Rendering
From a passenger standpoint, it’s quite nice to fly out of a new airport terminal. There are some features of Frankfurt Airport’s current terminals that I actually quite like, such as varied seating, though there’s no denying that the terminal itself is quite drab.
The current, not-so-exciting Frankfurt Airport Terminals 1 and 2
In terms of a migration plan, 13 airlines moved over to Terminal 3 today:
- Cathay Pacific
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- China Southern
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Gulf Air
- Korean Air
- Kuwait Airways
- Oman Air
- Qatar Airways
- Saudia
- T’Way Air
17 more airlines will move over from May 5, 2026 (though these have fewer frequencies to Frankfurt on average):
- Air Algérie
- Air Astana
- Air Cairo (Egyptair subsidiary)
- Air Montenegro
- Air Serbia
- Centrum Air
- FlyErbil
- MEA
- Nesma Airlines
- Nouvelair
- Qanot Sharq
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- SkyUp
- Tunisair
- Turkmenistan Airlines
- Uzbekistan Airways
Then 12 more airlines will move over from May 19:
- Aer Lingus
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Delta
- Freebird
- HiSky
- Japan Airlines
- MIAT Mongolian Airlines
- Pegasus
- SriLankan
- TUI
- Vietnam Airlines
From June 9, a fourth initial wave will move over, with 12 new airlines:
- Air Europa
- Air France
- Azores Airlines
- Bulgaria Air
- easyJet
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Icelandair
- KLM
- SAS
- SKY Express
- TAROM
At some point, Air Anka, Corendon Airlines, Nile Air and Star East Airlines are moving over. Additionally, Fraport also announced that Condor will be moving operations there in summer 2027, though this will be a while after the other airlines settle in by mid-this year.
As you can see, these are actually a majority of airlines that are outstationed at Frankfurt Airport (comprising of 58 airlines), especially outside of Star Alliance and the Lufthansa Group (plus Condor, which will set up a hub there in summer 2027) – only 30 airlines will remain at Terminal 1. Many of these airlines are currently based at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 2, which will officially close on June 9, 2026. Terminal 3 will be accessible from Terminal 1 via a longer SkyLine train journey, which will take up to 10 minutes. Until June 9, the terminal will be an exclusively non-Schengen terminal, with all flights departing from the non-Schengen area, Area J.
I’m looking forward to checking out the new T3 soon, though for now here’s what we know about the lounge situation at the airport.
SkyTeam opens lounge at Frankfurt Airport T3
The first lounge, and the lounge we’ve heard about the most so far, is SkyTeam’s lounge at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 3. This will be accessible to eligible passengers travelling on all SkyTeam carriers, though not part of Priority Pass. It’ll be located in the non-Schengen area, so you’ll need a passport in order to visit this lounge (presumably you can head over to visit the lounge, then head back to the Schengen area for your flight) – that’s Area J.
The lounge spans 550 sq. m, and has some made-to-order food options and a bar, two shower suites, and a dedicated relax area. This looks like one of the better alliance-wide lounges (particularly for SkyTeam, which doesn’t feature particularly exciting lounges). Many SkyTeam airlines moved over to Frankfurt Airport today, so it’s great that they’ll have this brand-new lounge to relax in.
SkyTeam Lounge Frankfurt T3
Emirates opens lounge at Frankfurt Airport T3
The second airline that will definitely be opening a lounge at Frankfurt is Emirates. While Emirates has been quite tight-lipped about this lounge, the airport website has been updated to include the Emirates lounge (though surprisingly not the SkyTeam one). This lounge will just be open to Emirates passengers and frequent flyer elites, and will be open four hours before each Emirates flight until when it boards – 11:15-15:15, and 18:20-22:20. It’s reported that the new lounge will be 1,500 sq. m, which will be a huge Emirates lounge. This lounge sits in the non-Schengen departures area of Frankfurt Airport, Area J.
Emirates lounges usually have features such as showers, champagne, and direct boarding, so I’d assume some of those features will be available here. There’s huge consistency between locations – usually there’s not much seating variety, a well-executed food spread, and some old-style workstations. I’d assume the same will be the case here, since we’ve not heard more about the lounge.
Emirates doesn’t have a particularly modern lounge design, though they are incredibly consistent with offering champagne and good catering
“Priority Lounge” Frankfurt T3 opens to Priority Pass members
The other lounge to magically appear on Frankfurt Airport’s website today was the Priority Lounge Frankfurt, also located at Terminal 3. Airlines such as Cathay Pacific have updated their Frankfurt lounge to be this lounge, so I’d assume this will house all non-SkyTeam or Emirates departure passengers for now. The Frankfurt Airport website also explicitly mentions access for Priority Pass members, as well as other common credit card lounge schemes (such as DragonPass). This lounge also sits in Area J, the non-Schengen departures area of Frankfurt Airport.
While the lounge doesn’t look particularly special, this is one of the more elegantly designed lounges in the Priority Pass network, if you ask me. I have no idea how big it is, though I wonder if it holds a candle to my favourite non-U.S. Priority Pass lounge, the Vienna lounge in…you guessed it.
An aesthetically pleasing Priority Pass lounge, if you ask me!
Once Schengen flights start departing from the terminal, I imagine there’ll be a Priority Pass lounge in the Schengen area as well. This hasn’t been announced yet.
Upcoming: Air France lounge at Frankfurt Airport T3
Air France currently operates a lounge at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 2, and it’s my understanding that they are planning to open an updated facility at the new Terminal 3 (whereas the older Terminal 2 lounge will close). Frankfurt Airport originally published this as a new lounge on their website today, though that’s been pulled (which makes sense – Air France isn’t moving to Frankfurt Airport until June 9, so the new facility probably isn’t open yet).
Why open an Air France lounge, when there’s already a SkyTeam lounge? My understanding is that Air France is going to open a lounge in the Schengen area, which won’t be operational until June 9 anyway. My guess is that Air France’s lounge will be located in the Schengen area, whereas the SkyTeam lounge will be in the non-Schengen area (presumably with free movement between sections for those with eligible passports, though I can’t confirm). Perhaps this lounge may also offer access to Priority Pass members, as there currently isn’t a Priority Pass lounge in the Schengen area.
Rumoured: Qatar Airways/Oneworld Lounge at Frankfurt Airport T3
While there’s been no official reporting on this, word-of-mouth and FlyerTalk forums have mentioned that a Oneworld facility will open, with Qatar Airways at the helm.
If this lounge would be similar to a Qatar Airways lounge, that would be awesome. Qatar Airways lounges around the world feature premium a-la-carte catering for business class passengers (we’re talking filets and lamb chops), so it’d be cool to see a facility in Frankfurt – check out my review of the lounge at London Heathrow. The catch is that this isn’t a feature that’s typically available for frequent flyer elites, who have access to a more mediocre lounge at these locations.
Qatar Airways’ lounge at Heathrow Airport is awesome, and I’d love to see a similar facility in Frankfurt
Alternatively this could be similar to the Oneworld lounge we currently see at Amsterdam and Incheon Airport. Those facilities are relatively much less impressive (especially from a food angle), though are probably still among the better outstation lounges you see out there.
The Oneworld Lounge Amsterdam was no Qatar Airways lounge, though it was a fairly nice lounge for an outstation airport
In terms of other Oneworld speak, I believe Japan Airlines has confirmed they won’t be opening a lounge at Frankfurt Airport’s T3 (since they currently operate one at T2), though we haven’t heard much from other airlines yet. American Airlines, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific are among the most likely airlines to open new lounges generally, though none of them have said anything about opening a lounge here, and I think it’ll be unlikely for them to do so if Qatar Airways does open a lounge at the airport.
I would be fairly certain this lounge would sit in the non-Schengen area of the airport. Iberia and Finnair are the only two Oneworld airlines that will operate Schengen flights into T3 thus far, and I imagine they’d use a contract lounge solution – this hasn’t been finalised yet.
Condor may open its first lounge…?
When Condor moves to the new airport, there are rumours swirling saying that it may open its first lounge. Condor has been upgrading its premium travel experience lately, and it seems part of their expansion plan to open a new lounge for their premium passengers.
We’ll see whether this looks closer to some of the more impressive lounges we’ve seen from hybrid carriers (such as JetBlue), or whether it’ll match Lufthansa’s mediocre offering at the airport.
Condor may open its first lounge once they move to Frankfurt T3 in mid-2027
I’m hoping we can see this as one of the world’s most competitive lounge spaces
Multiple airports have great lounges, though there are few airports where there is genuine operator competition. For example, Qatar Airways’ Doha lounges are amazing, though there’s not much operator competition there, since any other lounge you’ll visit at the airport will be mediocre.
Meanwhile, Heathrow has a variety of lounges from different airlines, and Terminal 2 and 3 particularly have genuine operator competition. For example, Terminal 2 features the Air Canada, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United lounges, whereas Terminal 3 has the AmEx lounge, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, American Airlines and British Airways lounge. Other airports with similar operator competition include New York JFK, Los Angeles, Bangkok, Singapore, and to a lesser extent Hong Kong.
Frankfurt Airport has seen a lot of mediocre lounges – the Lufthansa lounges are all mediocre, I haven’t heard amazing things about the Japan Airlines or Emirates lounges, and the Air Canada lounge was better but still not great. I’m hoping to see airlines such as Qatar Airways push Frankfurt up to join the list of top-tier airport terminals as listed above. The SkyTeam lounge sets a good precedent (as it seems genuinely competitive unlike some of the other lounges), and I’m hoping to see new joiners follow suit as well.
It’s time to see another major airport join the competitive lounge space
Conclusion
Frankfurt Airport’s stunning-looking new Terminal 3 opened today starting with non-Schengen longhaul operations, expecting 59 new airlines total by mid-2027. Out of these airlines, three lounges have opened, including a SkyTeam lounge, an Emirates lounge, and a Priority Pass lounge (un-creatively named “Priority Lounge”).
In terms of what we’re expecting to see, we know another SkyTeam lounge is coming in the Schengen region (the Air France lounge), and there are rumours of Qatar Airways spearheading a lounge for Oneworld passengers. There aren’t any Star Alliance carriers moving to the new terminal, hence no new lounges for the alliance.
I’m excited to see what’s to come, and think that this new terminal may catapult Frankfurt’s overall lounge offering into the competitive leagues of Heathrow, New York JFK, Bangkok, Singapore, etc..
Has anyone already visited Frankfurt Airport’s new T3? How was it?
