The passenger experience at the German airline's primary hub will be improved with the help of FraAlliance. The joint venture sounds promising and is focused on passenger experience.

The two companies intend to use FraAlliance to strengthen their existing cooperation on strategic and operational matters at Frankfurt Airport and thus plan to deepen their long-standing partnership in relation to enhancing services at the airport's Terminal 1

They said the aim was to improve the quality of products and services at the airport.

Business development, operations, customer experience and infrastructure are some of the areas the partners are targeting.

The joint venture cited an early win in which the security checkpoint wait times are displayed. Transfer times for around a million passengers per year will be significantly reduced by removing unnecessary security checks, according to the company.

Improvements to the passenger experience will be welcomed by travelers. The bottom of most passengers' European connection preference lists is where the primary hub operation is located. It is time for Frankfurt to up its game given that Star Alliance passengers have several good hub options.

The layout of the terminal dates back fifty years to 1972, with various extensions added on in the decades since without adding on the infrastructure to move efficiently between them.

A small aesthetic problem is contributing to the operational problems with the passenger experience.

3 diagrams showing the layout of the Lufthansa precinct Frankfurt Airport.

The layout of the precinct at the airport is difficult to navigate. The image is of the airline.

The layout of the terminal space is antiquated and sub-optimal, split into four spoked areas but with little to no effective transportation between them.

  • A/Z 50-69, extending in a line west from the terminal, the “A Plus” terminals that are ten years old
  • A1-42 and Z11-24, extending in a line southwest from the terminal and then west with the extension A-only gates from 26-42
  • B gates, in a double-piered inverted-Y shape extending south from the terminal
  • C gates, extending southeast from the terminal

Getting back from one spoke to the main terminal and then on to the connecting one can take a long time. It doesn't have any kind of tram or underground shuttle. The Sky Line peoplemover is impractical in most instances, and in any case for these areas of the airport only connect two points to the B section far from the gates.

Only the A and B sections of the tunnel are accessible. The passenger movement between the sections of the terminal will be a priority.

Rotation

We would expect a lot of improvements to the Express Rail connections to the high-speed rail network at the airport. It's tucked into the small connecting corridor to the station and its The Squaire retail and hotel complex, so an improved experience, perhaps with airport terminal colocation, or even as a separate terminal in The Squaire, would be welcome.

Baggage transfer through the airport will need improvements. Lounge capacity is tight throughout the facility but especially in the B-gates piers.

Aesthetics is the last one. The airport is tired and has a lot of hard grey surfaces. It isn't necessary to make changes here, but making it more pleasant would be a big win for the project.

There are related articles.

Fraport AG is credited with the picture.