Thereby, along with a strong rail and motorway connection, the airport serves as a major transport node for the greater region, less than two hours by ground to Cologne, the Ruhr Area, and Stuttgart.

With the foundation of Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1926, a rapid boom in civilian air travel started, and soon the airship base became too small to handle the demand.

Plans for a new and larger airport located in the Frankfurt City Forest southwest of Schwanheim were approved in 1930 but were not realized due to the Great Depression.

A two-storey station building with a six-storey tower originated in 1935 on the northern part of the airport, as well as other operating and outbuildings for maintenance and storage of aircraft.

On 6 May 1937, the Hindenburg, flying from Frankfurt to New York City, exploded shortly before it was scheduled to dock at Lakehurst.

After the beginning of World War II in 1939, all foreign airlines left the airport, and control of air traffic was transferred to the Luftwaffe.

Luftwaffe engineers subsequently extended the single runway and erected hangars and other facilities for German military aircraft.

The Allies of World War II destroyed the runway system with airstrikes in 1944, and the Wehrmacht blew up buildings and fuel depots in 1945, shortly before the US Army took control of the airport on 25 March 1945.

After the German Instrument of Surrender, the war in Europe ended and the US Army started to build a new temporary runway at Frankfurt Airport.

In 1955, Lufthansa resumed flights to and from Frankfurt and in the same year the Federal Republic of Germany gained its air sovereignty back from the Allies.

The main points of conflict were increasing noise and pollution and the cutting down of protected trees in the Frankfurt City Forest.

From 2005 to 2007, a large Airbus A380 maintenance facility was built at Frankfurt Airport because Lufthansa wanted to station their future A380 aircraft fleet there.

Both terminals also underwent major renovations in order to handle the A380, including the installation of a third boarding bridge at several gates.

In 2011, a large office building called The Squaire (a blend of square and air) opened at Frankfurt Airport.

It was built on top of the Airport long-distance station and is considered the largest office building in Germany with 140,000 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) floor area.

Plans to build a fourth runway at Frankfurt Airport were underway in 1997, but owing to violent conflicts with the concept Fraport let residents' groups and environmentalists participate in the process to find a mutually acceptable solution.

Additional requirements included improved noise protection arrangements and a strict ban on night flights between 11 pm and 5 am across the whole airport.

The conclusion was that a runway northwest of the airport site would have the least impact on local residents and the surrounding environment.

"[23][24] the attacker then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, and continued to fire three shots at two other airmen, wounding them.

Uka fled, but was pursued by the civilian airport employee Lamar Joseph Conner and Staff Sergeant Trevor Donald Brewer and shortly afterwards overpowered by two German police officers.

[33] After approval by municipal authorities in 2018,[34] the piers will be constructed and used according to the following timetable:[35] In March 2021, Fraport announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening of the new terminal had been postponed to 2026.

Simultaneous parallel landings were not possible with the north and south runway pairing, because the separation distance did not meet the safety standards.

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts offers 1,008 guest rooms adjacent to Terminal 1 and a conference centre for up to 200 delegates.

Lufthansa moved its airline catering subsidiary LSG Sky Chefs to Gateway Gardens, Condor and SunExpress are headquartered here.

[247] Frankfurt Airport can be accessed by car, taxi, train or bus as it features an extensive transport network.

The station is squeezed in between the motorway A 3 and the four-lane Bundesstraße B43, linked to Terminal 1 by a connecting corridor for pedestrians that bridges the Autobahn.

It is the end point of the newly built Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, which links southern Germany to the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, the Netherlands and Belgium via Cologne at speeds up to 300 km/h (190 mph).

The service operates to the central stations of Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Hamburg, Hannover, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe.

A long term holiday parking lot is located south of the runways and connected by shuttle bus to the terminals.

[citation needed] Various transport companies provide bus services to the airport from the surrounding areas as well as by coach to long-distance destinations.